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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE 



FOR ALL. 



COMMON SENSE PRESCRIPTIONS AND PRACTICAL INFORMATION. 

A SYSTEMATIC TREATMENT IN THE DOMESTIC 

PRACTICE OF MEDICINE, 



PAUL BARRINGTON JONES, M. D. 



COPYRIGHT APPLIED FOR. 



SOLD BY THE AUTHOR AND HIS AGENTS ONLY. 



; 3744 m 



KANSAS CITY : 

Isaac P. Moore, Printer, 12 W. Missouri Av 

1880. 



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&VN 




PAUL BARRINGTON JONES, M. D., 

AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER. 



THIS LITTLE BOOK 

IS DEDICATED 

TO MY INESTIMABLE FRIEND, 

MR. J. J. HUGHES. 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



The object of placing this little book before the heads of families, 
and non-professional persons, is to furnish them with a few useful 
hints and suggestions for those who may be sick as well as to those 
who have the care of the sick. In the practice of over twenty years, 
by the bed-side of the sick and misfortunate, we have long since been 
impressed with the necessity of some kind of a little cheap book which 
we might place in the hands of every family, which would not only 
instruct them how to keep well but give them some useful information 
that would enable them to properly care for the sick, that thousands of 
lives might be saved from the grave, especially in the case of little chil- 
dren. As the doctor visits from house to house we find many persons 
thrown into the sick room to care for them, who are exceedingly anxious 
to know more of their duty. This book is not intended to take the place 
of a doctor when one is really needed, but more especially to instruct 
you to do many things that are highly necessary for you to know as 
well as the doctor, together with much other useful information, such 
as I know will be highly prized by every household. 

THE AUTHOR. 



A Good Nurse. 



We begin this little book with the above caption and commence to 
talk plainly of the duties and qualifications of the nurse, for we believe 
that the cure of the patient depends largely upon the quality and in- 
telligence as well as the adaptation of the nurse ; indeed, the great 
man Valpau once said, "It is the good nurse that saves the sick." 
Take this view of the matter, the question of her or his duties and 
qualifications should not be passed over lightly, but should engage 
our earnest attention. 

Some writer has made the statement that "Nurses are like poets 
and artists— were born, not made." Evidently there are some gifts 
that are very essential to a good nurse ; but we believe that some qual- 
ifications may be acquired, and that a little training will often 
compensate for the lack of natural endowments. 

The reason that we have so few good nurses is, because the ma- 
jority know but little about those things which go to make up what a 
good nurse should be. 

1. A nurse should be of middle age. If she is young, she is apt to 
be thoughtless, wild and heedless; if she or he is old, they may be 
deaf, or stupid, or in trouble. But a good nurse should be always able 
to hold herself or himself in subjection, and some old mothers may 
have all the freshness and acuteness of earlier years. But no matter 
who the nurse is, she should always wear a cheerful face, no matter 
how grave the case may be ; she should be gentle, kind and obliging ; 
she should always keep calm, not get excited ; she must have a pleas- 
ant voice, a gentle touch, a light step, and a knowledge of cooking for 
the sick. Such a person is invaluable. 

2. She should be honest — honest with the patient and with the 
physician. 

3. Now, if the patient can have no confidence in the nurse, then 
the sick-room is no place for such a person ; or if the conduct is such 
as to lead the physician to conclude that his orders have not been 



8 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

followed, it is certainly a very unfortunate place to occupy ; however, 
no person should employ a physician unless they have confidence in 
him, after which they should understand his directions ; then see te 
it that you faithfully carry out his orders. Some nurses are very self- 
opinionated, and they fancy that they know far better than the medical 
man ; and in order to carry out their measures they resort to a species 
of dishonesty. Such a nurse should be scrupulously avoided, for she- 
ought to know that under the circumstances the patient is made to 
suffer and perhaps die. A quackish nurse, who gives medicines not 
ordered by the physician, is an abomination. 

4. A nurse must have sobriety. Every nurse should be cheerful and 
pleasant. Some people are always in a constant giggle or titter ; the 
grin of childish levity and thoughtless noise, and roaring laughter,, 
should be avoided : in short, no person should be allowed in the sick 
room who cannot control themselves. The next quality should be 
firmness; every nurse should be resolute but not rude. She is not ex- 
pected to yield to the patient every request, unless it comes within 
the bounds of reason and common sense ; everything that is expect- 
ed to be done she must do cheerfully and kindly, as well as carefully,, 
then after it is done the patient will have confidence in her and praise 
her for it, and for the exercise of a good judgement. 

5. The next quality is patience. A very large degree of patience is- 
required, for the reason tkat sick persons are very often irritable and 
restless, and sometimes well persons get a touch of it; remember 
that. Have you not often felt yourself a little ashamed of your own 
irritability sometimes ? I have. Then how would you expect it oth- 
erwise with those who are compelled to lie in bed and suffer pain for 
days, and perhaps weeks, and be deprived of their liberty to even 
walk about the house? Therefore, it does not matter how sorely- 
tired and worn-out the nurse may be, it does not furnish an excuse 
for getting out of patience. 

She slwuld possess gentleness, in case of a broken limb, painful back, 
or rheumatism, etc., where it becomes necessary to change the cloth- 
ing. This requires a good deal of gentleness. The patient should not 
be handled with an unsteady hand ; the holds that secure firmness,, 
strength and gentleness will secure confidence in the invalid and make 
him feel secure. If you are to do the work, do it with gentleness and 
not with jerks and knocks, as if you were mad and did not care. 

6. The sixth qualification is cleanliness. The nurse should not only 
keep herself clean but she should keep the room clean, neat and sweet. 
Little filthy things about the room, sticking in the corners, so often 
spoils the appetite of the patient ; never allow the dressings of wounds, 






GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 9 

or burns to remain in the room ; let every vessel be kept empty and 
clean, ready for use at a moment's warning ; then you can let in a lit- 
tle fresh air, by opening a window or door. Remember this must be 
attended to. Bad air is poisonous. The food not eaten should be 
taken out of sight ; the drinking water should be changed often, as 
water gathers impurities directly. Be clean in everything you do, 
and you will be amply rewarded for it. 



KINDS OF NURSES. 

Some good-hearted people never become good nurses ; they seem 
too awkward and tired, hence they are always overwhelmed in difficul- 
ties. They are good-natured creatures, don't mean anything bad, but 
they can't help it. 

Here she comes all loaded down with good things ; both hands 
are full. She goes up stairways, stepping upon the bottom of her dress 
until she dropsa plate or two, or spills the tea, or goes down herself. 
She manages to get up after a while, and spreads the remainder before 
the patient. She then cuts the bread and butters it with a knife that 
has previously been used to cut an onion or spread a mustard plas- 
ter, and says, " Now, dear, I will go go back and make some more 
tea." The patient asks for a drink of water before she goes. She 
says " yes, dear," and runs off and gets a glass brim full, puts her 
hand under the patient's head, bends his or her neck, and turns the 
water down on the outside all over the breast and clothing. Then she 
wonders why in the world he don't drink better. She lights the lamp, 
turns the wick up, takes a bit of paper, makes a flash, throws the paper 
on the floor and stamps it out with her foot. The fire wants fixing ; she 
turns on so much fuel that it all runs down and over the floor ; to ter- 
rify the patient she leaves the stove door open till the house is filled 
with smoke. The braid of her dress is loose ; she catches that on the 
chairs and drags them after her. Her fingers are tied up with a rag 
and rolled with a black string ; they have been scalded by hot water 
which she undertook to turn into the teapot. She brings another 
plate of food directly, and declares to the patient that she knows he 
will die if he don't eat something ; so that the patient is annoyed and 
gets nervous, fever comes on and he gets no sleep the live-long night. 
Such a woman is the best in the world, and she does the very best she 
knows ; but she makes a very poor nurse. 



10 PEAKLS OF WISDOM, 



THE LAZY NURSE. 

This kind "putters,,' dreams and drawls ; she never begins ; she 
neA r er ends. She has neither system nor smartness ; no accurate idea 
of anything ; if you undertake to tell her anything her mind wanders 
off, and she will begin to talk to you about a dozen different subjects. 
She starts off, to do something you tell her to do, as if she was in a 
great hurry, but her intellect seems to have left her, and lo ! she has 
forgotten what you told her. She feebly moans her monotones, and 
brings you the wrong article. I feel sorry for this one. 



THE CRUEL NURSE. 

This kind will do her duty, but sh,e does it by law and that with- 
out mercy. She will carry out the doctor's orders, but it lacks the 
right spirit. She fixes the medicine at the right time, and it must be 
taken forthwith. She changes the clothes no matter how it hurts. A 
little tenderness and compassion would improve this kind most won- 
derfully. 



THE CARELESS NURSE. 

This one forgets to give the medicine at the right time ; also for- 
gets the patient in many particulars. The soiled dishes are scattered 
around the room, and she lets the food stand for hours at the bedside 
after the patient has partaken of all he wants. The bed is full of 
crumbs and seldom made up ; the fire burns low or goes out ; the ashes 
are strewn all over the hearth. She means well and she does the very 
best she knows. Still she makes a very poor nurse. 



THE FUSSY NURSE. 

Now this one is liable to overdo everything. She intends to have 
everything just right. She runs in and out every few minutes — here 
she goes hither and yonder. She tires the patient nearly to death with 
her interrogations. " Xow how do you feel ? Won't you have a drink ? 
Can't you eat something? " She raises his head, then tucks the bed- 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 11 

clothes in here and there. She pins back the curtains ; then she 
sweeps the floor. She brings the medicine, fixes the eatables ; always 
on the go. She is too good to sit still, and yet her very goodness is 
damaging to the patient. She ought to be more quiet and take things 
more easy. 

THE DISHONEST NURSE. 

The very worst of ail is the dishonest nurse. I have known some 
such nurses, who would eat all the food and drink all the wine, turn 
out the medicine, and then try to make me believe the patient took 
all I had left. But these poor creatures are very few, and we thank 
the Lord for it- 

THE TATTLING NURSE. 

A Tattler is an abomination, a weariness to the flesh. Of all the 
nurses this one is the first to be shunned. She is a curse and a great 
damage to all who are around her. She keeps the patient and every- 
body else in a perfect stew and worry. Xo person under her eye can 
feel secure. But thank the Lord, for humanity's sake, we seldom see 
this kind. 



Every nurse should be a person who has good judgment and a 
full exercise of his or her senses ; should have : 

Sight — To read directions, and sometimes to read to amuse the 
patient. 

Hearing — To catch the faintest whisper, and to avoid a great effort 
in speaking. 

Feeling — To determine the change in temperature in the room, 
the heat of the body, the moisture or dryness of the skin, and to know 
when applications are to be made — when they are too cold or too hot 

see that all drafts are avoided when sponging or bathing the 
patient. 

Smelling — To detect all effluvias or impurities that are in the room. 

To..<t>: — To determine the seasoning of the food. 

A careful exercise of all the natural faculties, with a study of the 
principles of nursing, ought to make a competent person to care for 
the sick. 



12 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



The Room for the Sick. 



It is not every family who have a choice of rooms, but under all 
circumstances we must do the best we can. A room should be selected 
that is light and cheerful. The head of the bed should be placed to 
the north, if possible, as the currents of electricity in nature run from 
north to south. If the patient has some kind of fever or brain dis- 
order, or some nervous disease, let the room be in some quiet part of 
the house, away from the family. If it is a bone broken or fracture 
from the result of some accident, then the patient should be near the 
rest of the family, for in such cases it is very often amusement for the 
patient to watch the movements of the rest. Avoid a room that is 
exposed to any kind of effluvia. Have the windows so that they can 
be let down at the top. The less furniture in the room the better, es- 
pecially if the disease be infectious. Before' putting the patient in the 
room see to it that it has been well aired, warmed and dried. First, 
light the fire and see that the chimney draws well. The best bed is a 
hair mattress, but clean straw or husks will answer very well. Remem- 
ber that feather beds are not healthy ; besides they are inconvenient, 
especially if the patient has a broken bone or fractured leg, and in 
wounds and burns — the patient is apt to sink down into holes. When 
the patient is to be changed and the party cannot get up, you can get 
the patient on the edge of the bed ; now roll up against the patient 
all the bed clothes that you intend to change, have your clean sheets 
and blankets all ready ; now spread them on the bed smooth and 
straight ; now get your patient to roll over carefully on the clean 
sheets ; now take off the dirty clothes, and then spread out the other 
half of the clean change. Now, don't you see, you have it all done 
nicely. If it is necessary to scour the room to purify it, wash it with 
hot water, after first adding a few cents' worth of chloride of lime, or 
some crude carbolic acid. Then dry the room thoroughly and it is 
ready. 



«EMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL 13 



Food and Drinks for the Sick. 



It will be necessary for you to know how to prepaie certain kinds 
of foods which the doctor may order for the patient. It is well that 
you should understand a few general principles that should govern 
the administration of food. First, then, solid food is seldom admiss- 
able, especially during acute diseases of any kind, for the reason that 
the stomach and digestive organs are not in a condition to furnish the 
fluids necessary for its comminution ; hence, instead of digesting, it 
simply lies there and decomposes, which will give rise to irritation, 
and hence it will produce other serious complications. Second. The 
more severe the disease the more delicate and lighter the food should 
be diluted. Thus, in a high grade of fever or inflammation we should 
give whey, beef tea, extract of beef, milk punch, toast water, mutton 
broth, tapioca, chicken broth. Third. When there is great exhaustion, 
then the food should be all the more concentrated, and very nutri- 
tious. Then let us give the Extract of Beef, or beef essence as it is 
sometimes called, concentrated chicken or mutton broth, milk and 
cream. Fourth. In fevers or inflammatory diseases, give the food at 
the period of the day or night in which there is least vascular and 
nervous excitement, and never force it upon the patient if suffering 
from a high grade of fever. Fifth. Never give food in severe pain. 
Sixth. Then if the tongue is coated with a yellow coat, and bad taste 
in the mouth, with a feeling of weight and oppression in the stomach, 
it is better not to give food ; or if given it should always be in a liquid 
form. Seventh. When the digestion is impaired and it becomes nec- 
essary to sustain life with food, it should be given in small quantities 
and at regular intervals, like medicine, every two or three hours. 
Eighth. In convulsions much care is required in keeping the patient 
from eating too much. 



14 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



Recipes for Cooking;, 



BEEF TEA. 

Take one pound of nice, tender steak, remove the fat, chop very- 
fine, put it in a pint of cold water, stir it and let it soak one hour, then 
boil it ten minutes, strain it and season to suit the taste of the patient 
or your own judgment in case of great exhaustion and great debility 
of the digestive organs- 



EXTRACT OF BEEF. 

.* ■ 

Take a Scotch ale stone bottle (it is best), scald it Out so that you 
know it is clean ; take one pound of nice, tender and fat beef steak ; 
after removing the fat, chop it up fine, season it with a little salt and 
pepper, put it in the bottle, cork it up tight, then tie the cork down so 
that you know that it will not fly out with the heat and steam ; now 
place the bottle into a pot of water and boil it for three hours. Ee- 
member you cannot cook it too much. Vfhen done and mostly used 
up the remaining liquor can be pressed out, then the bottle can be 
refilled with fresh meat and cooked for the next day. This prepara- 
tion is very rich, with nutritious element ; two tablespoonfuls at a dose 
for an adult is sufficient, repeated every two or three hours. A little 
can be poured out at a time and warmed on the stove as it is required. 
Keep the bottle well corked ; if it is left open the extract will lose 
much of its strength, as well as its flavor. 



CHICKEN JELLY. 

Take half a raw chicken, pound it well with a mallet, bones and 
all, cover it over with cold water ; heat it slowly in a covered vessel, 
let it simmer till the meat is thoroughly cooked, then strain the liquor 
through a coarse cloth ; now season it to taste, return it to the stove 
and let it simmer ten minutes longer, skim it when cool and give it to 
the patient. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 15 



BARLEY WATER. 

Take of pearl barley two ounces, boiling water two quarts, boil 
•down to one quart and strain ; a little lemon and sugar may now be 
added. This is a good drink in all inflammatory and eruptive diseases, 
scarlet fever, measles, small pox, etc. 



RICE WATER. 

Take of good rice two ounces, water two quarts, boil one and a 
half hours, then add sugar and nutmeg to suit the taste ; use w T ith 
milk. This an excellent diet for children. 



ARROWROOT JELLY. 

. *. 

One cup of boiling water, two teaspoonfuls of Bermuda arrow- 
root ; wet the arrowroot in a little cold water and rub smooth, then 
stir it into the hot water, which should be on the fire and boiling, with 
sugar already in it ; stir until clear, then add one teaspoonful of lemon 
juice ; now wet a cup with cold water and pour the jelly, and let it 
form. Eat with sugar and cream, if you like. 



BARLEY JELLY. 

Boil one quart of water, let it cool ; take one-third of a loaf of 
bread (common size), slice it up and pare off 1 the crust. Toast it to a 
light brown, put it in the water in a covered vessel and boil it gently 
till you find, on putting some in a spoon to cool, that it becomes a 
jelly ; now strain it and cool ; add sugar and lemon juice, or grate a 
little lemon peel as it is used. 



OATMEAL GRUEL. 

Two tablespoonfuls of oatmeal, one quart water, boil ten minutes 
and strain ~ salt and sugar to suit your taste. 



16 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

CORNMEAL GRUEL. 

Made the same way, using cornmeal instead of oatmeal. 



OATMEAL WATER. 

Take two ounces of oatmeal, one quart of water, stir up well, let 
stand till settled, then drink the water with ice in it, if you choose. 
This is an excellent drink for diarrhoea or in dysentery. 

Again — Take milk one pint, sheep's suet three ounces, corn starch 
half an ounce, cardamon seeds one ounce browned like you would 
coffee, then grind it very fine ; after the other mixture is boiled gently 
for thirty minutes stir in the ground seed while it is yet hot ; when 
cool it can be used as food and medicine. It is excellent. It will cure 
the very worst cases of dysentery or bloody flux. It does the work 
when the best of doctors fail. 



BUTTERMILK PAP. 

Take of fresh buttermilk four parts, water one part, mix and boil, 
then thicken with corn or oatmeal. Eat with butter arid molasses. 



WINE WHEY. 

Heat a pint of new milk until it boils, at which moment pour in 
as much good wine as will curdle and clarify it ; boil again, and set 
aside until the curd subsides ; pour off the whey carefully and add 
two pints of boiling water and loaf sugar to suit the taste. 



ORANGE WHEY. 

Milk one pint, the juice of one orange with a portion of the rind ; 
boil the milk, then add the orange juice ; let stand till it coagulates, 
then strain. Both of the above are excellent for convalescent pa- 
tients where there is weak digestion, for children or adults. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOK ALL. 17 



VEGETABLE SOUP. 

Take one potato, one turnip, and one onion, with a little celery or 
celery seed ; slice each, and boil one hour in a quart of water ; season 
to taste ; then pour the whole upon a piece of toast. 



ELM-BARK JELLY. 

Take two teaspoonfuls of finely pulverized elm bark and one pint 
of cold water ; stir until a jelly is formed ; sweeten with loaf sugar. 
This is excellent for all diseases of the throat and lungs, coughs, colds^ 
etc. It is very nutritious. 



FLAX-SEED LEMONADE OR COUGH SYRUP. 

Four tablespoonfuls of whole flax seed, half an ounce horehound 
herb, one quart boiling water ; let steep for three hours in a covered 
vessel and strain the juice from three roasted onions, the juice of two 
lemons ; tincture of lobelia and ipecacuanha, of each three drachms ; 
add sugar to sweeten ; if too thick, add a little w T ater. Partake of it 
freely; it is excellent for colds, coughs, throat or lung, as well as kid- 
nev trouble. 



MILK PUNCH. 

Take two fresh eggs, two tablespoonfuls loaf sugar; beat well 
together on a plate ; add one pint of new milk, nutmeg and good 
brandy or whiskey to flavor it well. This is par excellence the best sus- 
taining food in low grades of fever for children or adults. Alternate 
with the Extract of Beef, (see page 14, ) patients will live on it for days 
and weeks. 



18 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



The Little Infant. 



"A babe in a house is the well-spring of happiness/' The young 
husband steps about with a joyful air, with his head carried much 
higher than ever before ; he feels proud. Why shouldn't he ? He is 
proud of the title of Father, and the fond wife looks and smiles 
through her tears, feeling the pleasure of at last becoming a mother. 
Baby looks just like its father, except its hair and eyes — they resemble 
its mother ; but it is a bonny little thing, a messenger of peace and a 
joy to all. But what shall we do with it ? Well, we will tell you, but 
first we must tell you what is too often done in such cases : First, it is 
washed, then some spirits is rubbed on its head, then one or two caps, 
then some flannels are put on it, and it is dressed ; now it must take 
a little something, for the dear little creature must be hungry — so a 
little whiskey, salt and molasses are mixed and brought and poured 
down its delicate little throat ; next it must have physic — a little cas- 
tor oil is given, then a little baby soup is mixed up and given, after 
which it is put to bed to sleep. But, alas, not to sleep, for now here 
is where the music begins, and all hands are engaged in the waltz. 
The baby cries, and cries, and frets, and nobody gets any peace in 
that house. But surely something must be done. " Why, I do wonder 
what ails it? It surely must be sick," says one; "The child has the 
colic," says another; then a dose of paregoric is given; then in a few 
moments a dose of soothing syrup is poured down, and if the crying 
ceases, it swoons away under the influence of the narcotic poison it 
has taken ; now do go for the doctor, and when he arrives he finds it 
in a fit that has been produced by a reckless interference with nature. 
Now, all of this is cruel ; yes, it is an abomination. It was not done 
intentionally, of course, but it don't help the baby, to say it was done 
in kindness. 

Now, this is no imaginary picture. We have watched over hun- 
dreds of them, and, as they are not able to speak for themselves, you 
must allow us to speak for them and vindicate their claims. So we 
will proceed to give you a few hints : First, there is no oil, whiskey or 
salt needed, but if you will just keep them away you will soon learn 
that there is no necessity of giving paregoric or soothing syrup either 
to cure the colic. If the baby has a mother living, the first supply of 
milk from her will be better than anything else, and it is just what 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 19 

God designed it should have. It is no matter if the baby does not get. 
anything to eat for the first thirty-six hours. Xo baby yet has ever 
died for want of food the first two days of its life; but there have 
been hundreds, ah, yes, thousands, killed by the reckless interference,, 
by giving such miserable stuff as we have mentioned. If you do not 
abuse your little infant, its stomach will require no treatment. 

Having now rid your minds of this nonsense, you will next 
want to know what should be done. This is what we will endeavor to 
tell you : First, prepare all of its clothing with little tapes, having a 
a needle and thread handy to tack it with, instead of pins ; wash your 
baby with a little soft water and mild castile soap ; use a little glycer- 
ine, rubbing it over the body to dissolve the oily particles, then wash 
it off and dry the skin ; use no spirits of any kind ; do not fasten the 
clothes too tight ; use no cap on the head, and give it nothing. By- 
placing it to the mother, if it can be borne, it will be sufficient, but if 
you cannot resist the temptation long enough for nature to supply the 
proper nourishment, give it a little milk and warm water, sweetened 
with sugar of milk ; then, with its bod}* clean and warm, and its breath 
sweetened with angel purity and sweetness, lay it away in a warm r 
cosy nest, then you can sit down in comfort and see it rest easy, in a 
manner that will soon convince you that you have done right. But, 
if the mother should not furnish the proper supply in three or four 
days, then you can furnish it with the artificial nourisnment, properly 
prepared. Children, as they grow older, may require food. The milk 
of some mothers becomes impoverished, and, consequently, the child 
grows poor and is never satisfied ; then, in that case, take a little bread,, 
arrowroot and sugar, and simmer in a little water until it is quite 
smooth, then add milk until it is the proper thickness ; sweeten a lit- 
tle, and give it to your baby. Remember, however, that the natural 
food is the mother's milk, and any deviation from that standard of 
natural constituents is, consequently, more or less injurious, as the 
babies are not always hungry when they cry; it may be a pin, a tight 
compression on some part of the body, or it may be sickness. Babies 
are like older people — creatures of habit — and it is astonishing how soon 
they will form a habit. If you teach it the habit of being rocked to sleep, 
then that is what it wants when it cries and desires to sleep ; there- 
fore, you can teach it good habits as well as bad ones. You can teach 
it the habit of cleanliness, with very little trouble and regular attend- 
ance every day. Just try it, and be convinced ; if you will, your baby 
will be healthy and sweet. How often have we seen a mother rocking 
her baby to sleep, and then when she tries to lay it down it is as wide 
awake as ever? We have seen them trv this a half dozen times or 



20 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

more before succeeding. Lay it down awake, and when nature re- 
quires sleep it will soon come. But this habit must be taught from 
the beginning, if not you will have considerable trouble to antagonize 
the habit by and by. 



TEETHING. 

More children die passing this period of their lives than at any 
other time ; just when they have began to grow so interesting. Up to- 
this period in their lives they have always been so healthy ; they have 
not been sick a day ; they are so fat and healthy, and look so sweet ; 
they have began to pull oil the love strings, which wind so tight about 
the mother's heart. But, ah, me ; they are beginning to cut their 
teeth, and are so sick. Now, if we can be the means of teaching 
mothers how to save their children from the grave, while they are 
passing through this critical period of their lives, we will feel that 
this little book has . accomplished its purpose, and our life has not 
been lived in vain. 

When a child is teething, there is a heavy pressure upon the gums 
from the teeth forcing their way through ; this, of course, produces 
irritation and inflammation of the gums ; they become very tender 
and sore to the touch. This acts upon the nervous system and is 
sometimes followed by high fever ; the stomach and bowels are all out 
of order, and the child is fretful and sick. If the bowels become re- 
laxed, and it vomits up its food, etc, do not fly to your soothing syrup, 
or your paregoric and laudanum. One drop of laudanum, or five drops 
of paregoric, or half a teaspoonful of soothing syrup have each been 
known to kill an infant. Do not, we beg of you, suffer anybody to ever 
give your child those medicines, but use your little simple remedies 
which you know all about — at least you know they will do no harm. 

If you fail to furnish sufficient milk for the child, or if it has began 
to eat food, be careful what you give it to eat. Do not give it any 
green vegetables or green fruit, but resort to your Extract of BeeiV 
Oatmeal Water, Milk Punch, &c. ; (see pages 14, 16 and 17,) they will 
be sufficient to carry your child through safely. Keep the child 
warmly clad ; change its garments every time the weather changes ; 
if it is broken out with the heat, bathe its body occasionally with a 
little soda water, (such soda as you use for baking purposes,) wipe it 
dry and dust its body with a little cream of tartar. Occasionally give 
your baby a little lime water in its milk ; also, give it a piece of nice 
dried beef in its hand to suck — cut it in a long, round strip so that it 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 21 

cannot swallow it, and thus be choked to death. If you will follow 
these rules, you will seldom ever have to call a physician ; but if they 
all fail, you may call a physician who has age and experience in the 
treatment of little children, whom you have confidence in. 

When the teeth are coining through avoid giving it hard sub- 
stances to bite upon, for it breaks the enamel upon the teeth and they 
are apt to decay. The best thing is an India .rubber ring, which you 
can get at the drug store. Wash it off clean, then spread some mo- 
lasses upon it, and the child will work upon this with perfect pleasure 
and safety. But if the teeth are tedious in coming through, and the 
gums become much swollen and inflamed, you had better take it to 
the doctor and insist upon him to cut the gums, or, better still, to a 
good dentist, who will scarify the gums over each tooth. We have done 
this many times, and have been astonished to see how quickly the 
stomach and bowel trouble w T ould all pass away, and the child be ap- 
parently well in a very few days. When the child gets old enough to 
walk, do not make it stand too long at a time upon its feet. If one 
child w r alks at a certain age, it is no reason why another should. If 
you. force your child to walk you run the risk of bending its limbs. 

Some people are in the habit of scaring their children about "the 
doctor ! the doctor will come and cut your ears off. He will pull your 
teeth out." Now, this is all wrong, to scare your child about 
anything, no matter what, especially about the doctor. If you do not 
want your child to be timid and a coward all through its life, never 
allow anybody to try to scare your child. How T can the physician, 
under such circumstances, find out the condition of the tongue or the 
state of the pulse when the little child is almost frightened to death 
and trembling with fear ? Do not terrify the child in this way. Im- 
press the idea that when he comes he will cure them if they are sick, 
and is a friend to them when well ; then the child will learn to be 
calm as well as trustful ; b asides, they will be much easier restored to 
health. When they have confidence the medicine has a much better 
effect. There is a great difference between a grown person and a 
child when sick, for an adult has a dread of death, and, in many in- 
stances, a greater dread of the consequences after death. Hence, he 
submits very readily to treatment in the hope of living longer ; while 
the child has no fear of death nor the consequences after death, for 
its mind is too young yet to be doctrinated into the false ideas of the 
condition of life beyond the grave. But the child only dreads, and 
knows nothing of anything only its present pain. Children, therefore, 
if not too weak to bear it, should be amused with toys, and pictures ; 
give them a slate and pencil, a doll or a pet dog, a kitten, anything to 
cheer up their little spirits and give the best chances for a recovery. 



22 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



Hating. 



The brain is interested in the process of digestion. If it is excited 
or over-taxed, or even over-vexed, it will not stimulate the stomach to 
work till it is rested. Never eat when you are mad, fatigued,or exhausted. 
Drink a little gruel if you are very hungry, then wait till you are 
rested before you take a full meal. Always give the stomach time to 
rest between meals. Always eat regular, and not by piece-meals. 
Frequent eating, as well as too frequent nursing of children, soon 
weakens the stomach and liver, and brings on dyspepsia and other 
kinds of diseases. 

Eat Slowly. — Rapid eating, and drinking so much while eating, 
is the curse of this nation. It produces palpitation of the heart, ver- 
tigo, headache, neuralgia, nervous debility, spinal irritation, rheuma- 
tism, premature old age. Chew your food thoroughly, drink but little 
while eating, take plenty of time ; don't be in a hurry. Take thirty 
minutes' time to eat your meals. Remember that stomach bitters will 
not chew your food for you. You are better off without such stuff. 

Common Lamentation. — What is the cry of our fast-going people ? 
* l My food does not digest;" this is the saying all over America- 
"My poor head aches half the time; " so exclaim our young ladies. 
xi My lungs are the best part of me," which you can hear most any 
day, " but my liver is diseased and torpid." This is a popular com- 
plaint. "And my bowels are slow and sluggish." Such miserable 
lamentations ascend from all the most fertile portions of this glorious 
continent. But we feel glad that there is an awakening in the direc- 
tion of physiological knowledge and universal improvement, and the 
final triumph will surely be: The triumphant conquest of individual man 
over all enemies to his bodily ease and mental tranquility. 

Is it not worthy of particular notice that the majority of people 
who, as invalids, incessantly complain in the department of digestion, 
are the most constant violators of physiological law ? If, however, any 
person should natter him or herself that he or she can go on violating 
the conditions of Health, and, at the same time, by simply yielding to 
the self-restoring mercies of his spiritual constitution, recover all his 
original vigor and bloom, his disappointment will be complete. Mo- 
ther Nature is just as loving and as just as Father God ; but they do 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOE ALL. 23 

not, because they cannot, guarantee impunity from the effects of vio- 
lation. All the medical isms and myths and pathies from Hippocrates 
down to the last nostram cannot perform the pardoning act. There 
is no infallible remedy, so you might as well pass the word all around 
the world — there is no specific for any human transgression. Let 
every eye read it, let every ear hear it, and inscribe it in fadeless char- 
acters upon the Temple of Health. 



Lung Life. 



Deprive the lungs of heaven's invisible air — shut off the supply 
of the vivifying principle of the Divine Infinitude — and the whole beau- 
tiful machinery will stop. Remember this, that the best food in the 
the universe could give you no strength unless first baptized in the 
spirit of the atmosphere. Air is the Universal ! Thank the Lord 
that it cannot be fenced in by legislative enactment. But it can and 
■often is kept by ignorance or inattention out of the lungs of invalids. Some 
persons seem to be afraid to expand their lungs to their utmost capacity 
for fear something will break and let out the stream of life. Of course, 
dear reader, you know that any sudden and violent conduct will be 
attended with a great percentage of risk. Begin deliberately to prac- 
tice daily, therefore, and you will find that the air is impregnated with 
an electric energy which pervades, refreshes, quickens and energizes 
every part of your physical temple. Remember, your food cannot di- 
gest, neither can your blood circulate, without the electric fire of the 
air; neither can a particle of food strengthen you without it. . With- 
out the living energy of the air, which is obtained only through the 
lungs, no diet could be made universally nutritious. Salivarj- juice, 
as it pours out from the little springs on either side of the cheeks and 
mouth, could do nothing without the vivifying electricity of the air. 
The gastric fluids — although loaded with its inherent pepsin and the 
acids, lactic, hydrochloric, etc., etc. — could accomplish nothing with- 
out a constant supply of nerve-energy. The lungs must absorb the 
electricity of the measureless immensity ; otherwise nothing strong 
can occur, but death and transformation will hasten into the temple. 



"24 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



Singular Physiological Facte. 



The shortest route to health is through the lungs. Small lungs — 
small minds ; or large lungs and bad air ; large minds and few thoughts. 
The old-fashioned orthodox churches were built and kept as tight 
.as drums during service. The effect was manifest in narrow 
-creeds and doleful doctrines concerning God and man. In this con- 
nection we are reminded of Florence Nightingale, the noble nurse 
who voluntarily went to the Crimean war to bind up the bleeding 
soldiers. She says: " An extraordinary fallacy is the dread of night 
air. What air can we breathe at night but night air. The choice is 
from between pure night air from without and foul night air from 
within. Most people prefer the latter. An unaccountable choice. 
What will they say if it is proved to be true that fully one-half of the 
diseases we suffer from are occasioned by people sleeping with their 
windows shut. An open window most nights in the year can never 
hurt anyone. This is not to say that the light is not necessary for 
recovery. In great cities night air is the best and purest, out of the 
twenty -four hours. We could better understand shutting the windows 
in towns during the dajr than during the night, for the sake of the sick; 
for the absence of smoke and dust, as well as the quietude, all tend to 
make the night air the best for airing the sick. It is impossible to 
keep well, and have good digestion, without the pure air, and plenty 
•of it ; it is impossible to think large, manly, beautiful and virtuous 
thoughts, while respiring in an atmosphere of stagnation and conse- 
quent corruption. People who sleep in close, ill- ventilated rooms are 
forever dreaming a set of monotonous dreams, loaded with vicious 
pictures, and animated by strangers or demons, made from the con- 
fined air. Idiots breathe superficially; they seldom respire like an 
intelligent mind. Timid persons inhale small quantities of air. The 
•caward has a narrow chest, and he only uses the upper portion of his 
lungs. Why does the strongest horse always have the broadest and 
deepest chest ? The mind cannot expand and improve, morally and 
intellectually, unless the lungs be large and full, and constantly and 
plentifully supplied with air fresh from the vestige of immensity ; no 
health can be maintained in a confined atmosphere; no exalted 
thoughts ; no spiritual preceptions. 



OEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 25 



PROCESS OF DIGESTION. 

The Gastric Methods. The reasons in favor of full and intelligent ' 
respiration are numerous and easily understood. Chyle is the last 
result of fundamental digestion. But in itself, chyle has no power to 
promote growth, give strength, or repair the waste of the body. It is 
the successor to chyme. Chyme is manufactured from the food in the 
first part of digestion. It is first manufactured by the stomach into a 
pulpy mass, impregnated or charged w r ith electricity of the vital kind. 
But when it passes downward into the lower stomach, or duodenum, 
the pancreatic fluids and the bile at once combine with it, thereby 
adding a positive element by which the chyme is transformed into a 
milk-white liquid (the chyle) which, with the residum, flows steadily 
into and through all the small intestines. What next ? The numer- 
ous mesenteric glands, with the lacteal vessels, commence their work 
of forming incipient eggs from out the chylic fluids ; the unchylified 
portions (the residum) meantime passes onward into the large and 
lower bowels, and is then rejected, together with the broken-down 
blood globules, in the shape of bile and relative excretions. This ma- 
terial is wholly excrementious. 

Now the thoracic duct, so-called, attracts the chyle from the lac- 
teal passages and mesenteric glands, and pours it into a vein which, 
from behind the collar-bone, discharges its contents into the positive 
side of the heart ; there the blood is mixed with the negative portions 
of the venous blood, which is no more nutritious than the chyle ; 
neither can it give strength nor repair waste. 



THE PURIFYING ORDEAL OF THE BLOOD. 

How is this accomplished? By means of the pure air of space. 
Yes ; when Heaven's devout breath enters the air-chambers the chyle 
is at once converted into nutritious blood, baptized to the multifarious 
necessities of the arterial system, while at the same time the cold 
venous blood is unloaded of its dead-burdens in the form of carbonic 
gas and useless water. Carbon is the principal element of decay and 
death, yet it is very essential to life and a good conductor to electricity. 
♦So, therefore, the heart very wisely and energetically throws both the 
chyle and venous blood upon the entire responsibility of the lungs ; 
so that when the invisible air is drawn by deep breathing into the 



26 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

pulmonary structure the divine life also enters, whereby the chyle is 
changed as by magic into the constructive principle for the soul's 
good, whereby the newly purified blood is re-baptized and confirmed, 
into the ways of righteousness ; it hastens upon its mission of benev- 
olence to all parts of the physical temple. Now, my dear reader, we 
feel that we have put this question in a light that you may understand 
fully the process of digestion, as well as the importance of lung life in 
health, as well as the necessity of ventilation in the sick room ; so 
that you may better and more fully understand us when we speak 
upon the different conditions, on the pages of this little book, of How 
to Live, and what to do in all circumstances in disease and misfortune 
which may come upon you. For you must remember that nearly all 
diseases can be traced to the stomach and lungs, as the first origin 
from improper air and bad digestion. 



REMEDY FOR CONSTIPATION. 

Many persons who are troubled with biliousness, jaundice, sick- 
headache, fever, chills, etc., which is a constant persistent inactivity of 
the bowels. Dear reader, pills and cathartic medicines will not cure 
you, for thousands have tried it, over and over again. The old com- 
plaint is still lingering with you, and has been for years. We will tell 
you how you can, with a very simple medicine and a judicious use of 
diet, cure yourself of it, and of all the above ills, and keep you free 
from those troubles, When the system is clogged and surcharged 
with broken-down blood of wasted tissue, semi-oxygenated fluids (out 
of which all manner of corruption, jaundice, bilious sick-headache, 
melancholy, fever and chills, are brought forth. 

Remedy. — Take plenty of time to eat your meals, chew your food 
well; no meat, no coffee, no hot cakes oftener than twice per week. 
Plenty of all kinds of fruit sauce for breakfast and supper, ' cracked 
wheat, graham bread or mush, or oatmeal, baked potatoes, vegetables 
of all kinds.- If you will live in this way you will be astonished how 
soon you will get rid of all those bilious troubles ; not one, but all 
will pass away from you, never to return. 

For immediate relief— Take a tablespoonful of Indian meal or gra- 
ham flour in a tumbler of water before breakfast, quite early in the 
morning; perhaps several doses will be necessary, together with our 
sovereign remedy. 

Take two drachms each of tincture of mandrake (podophylin), 
tincture of Turkey rhubarb and tincture of nux vomica, one ounce of 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 27 

fluid extraet of Cascara Sagrada of Park, Davis & Co.'s manufacture, 
tablespoonful of powdered willow charcoal, orange peel and cloves, 
well powdered, of each one tablespoonful ; put all in one pint of good 
Holland gin, add half a pint of water, half pound of sugar. Shake it 
well. Dose : Teaspoonful half hour after each meal and one on going 
to bed. Take it for a week or more, or longer if required. Keep this 
medicine in your house, and you will never need any other for all 
those bilious troubles which trouble more or less one out of every 
family. 

NEURALGIA. 

This is another malady which afflicts the human family. But if 
the system is much clogged up, as described in bilious conditions (see 
page 26) it may be necessary to take a good bath, first soaking the feet 
in a bucket of hot water, after first adding a tablespoonful of ground 
mustard, drinking some hot ginger tea, or, better still, a tea made from 
the smart weed. This is excellent. Now go to bed, add a few bottles 
of hot water to the feet and around the limbs. Pile on now the blankets 
and the comforts several thicknesses, and after commencing to sweat 
keep it up for thirty or forty minutes. Don't be afraid of sweating 
too long, for its not going to hurt you. Now, while you are sweating 
go to rubbing and scratching yourself, You will be astonished at the 
amount of the gluey matter that you can roll off from your body- Of 
this you must get off all that you can while you are sweating under 
the cover, as it is the only time and place that it will come off. Have 
some friend to sponge your body off with a warm, wet towel and 
soap while you are yet under the covers- When you get through the 
sweat, you can be sponged off with a, little warm water, wiped dry 
and rubbed hard with the towel, Or, better still, give the body a 
brisk rubbing with the bare hands for twenty minutes. With this 
treatment, together with the following remedy, we have never failed 
to cure neuralgia permanently. It is as follows : Neuralgia —Sal amo- 
nia in one ounce of camphor-water to be taken teaspoonful at a time, 
and the dose repeated several times at intervals of five minutes till 
the pain is relieved, then prolong the intervals- If, however, the pain 
is very acute and severe, for external use you can use the following, 
no matter where the pain is located — neck, face, teeth or ears : Wine 
of opium, 30 drops, sulphuric ether half a drachm; fluid extract of 
belladonna, fluid extract gelseminum, of each one drachm, one ounce of 
lavender water. Mix all together, saturate a cotton cloth with the 
mixture and apply it for an hour or more over the region of the pain. 



28 PEARLS OP WISDOM, 



Bath. 



Some convenient apparatus should be kept in every dwelling for 
bathing purposes. Baths are used both in health and disease. Bath- 
ing or sponging is indispensable, for cleanliness is godliness. Wash 
the skin all over at least twice a week. Use a little castile soap and 
then wipe dry, having the room the right temperature- Every family 
could have a cosy little bath room by itself, with very little expense, 
to be used in health or sickness. By having a wooden box made with 
a door to it large enough for a person to sit on a stool — something like 
a piano stool, that could be raised or lowered at will — for the bather 
to sit on ; the bath box so arranged that the head could be outside 
when the door is closed close around the neck. With such a bath 
box as this, no one would need any other kind of bath fixtures about 
the house ; for with this kind of a bath box there could be nearly 
every different kind of bath given that would be required for any pur- 
pose whatever ; such as the alcoholic vapor bath, steam bath, elec- 
trical bath, medicated vapor bath, shower bath, spray bath, etc., etc, 
by having a reservoir, some distance from the bath box, holding suffi- 
cient warm or tepid water for the purpose, with a rubber hose run- 
ning from the reservoir to the bath box. In this way you could take 
your alcoholic sweat by placing a lamp with s a large wick made for 
that purpose, and set it under your stool and take a good sweat ; first, 
with your feet placed in a bucket of hot water, after all of which, you 
could shampoo yourself with soap, then spray yourself off from the 
rubber hose, which should be supplied with a nice spray-fixture on 
the end of the hose, filled full of very fine holes for the water to pass 
through, and hung up on the inside of the bath box — some place 
handy. Then, after shampooing your body with soap you could have 
an attendant to turn on the water so you could spray yourself off 
while sitting in the box all shut up. Now this is one of the most de- 
lightful baths that ever was given, and does far more good for the sick 
or well than a bath taken in any other way, as you can have 
the water any temperature you desire, and change it at will. In this 
case you see the fresh water runs on you all the while and passes off 
into your waste pipe, which, of course, should be attached to the bot- 
tom of the bath box. If people would only so arrange their bath 
houses or boxes in this wav, so that the bathers could have the water 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 29 

run on them by means of a fine spray and pass off, it would be more 
scientific. It is very much better than lying in the water, for the 
reason that, in this way, you receive all the electrical and magnetic 
elements that are in the water, and thus your bath acts like a tonic to 
the human body, giving strength and vigor ; while lying in the water 
the old way is not so cleansing ; besides, if you lie in the water over 
twenty-five minutes, it is weakening in its effects. 

Alcoholic sweat baths given in this way, from the dry, hot air from 
the alcoholic lamp, (for you should use no other kind of heat for this 
purpose but alcohol), is a better method for curing rheumatism and 
neuralgia than all other medicines in the world, for it will cure them 
every time without fail, but it must be repeated two or three times 
per week. Try it. 

The best way to give a baby a bath when it is sick and afraid of 
the water, is to take a small blanket and wring it out from w^arm 
water, spread it over the mother's lap, and lay the baby on the wet 
blanket and wrap it all up, and wrap a dry blanket over that to keep 
out the cold air. Keep the child in this condition for thirty or forty 
minutes, then unwrap it and change it to a warm, dry sheet, and wrap 
it up again till it has all dried off. You can, while wrapped up in the 
sheet, rub it dry with the sheet, then you can change its clean clothes. 
This method can be repeated as often as desired with safety, and it is 
very efficient in many of the ills that are incident to children. How- 
ever, you are to remember that in all cases of this kind that the room 
must be warm ; no draft from the doors and windows while adminis- 
tering the bath. 



THE FOOT BATH. 

This batb is very efficient for many purposes. For headaches or 
for a sudden cold, this is often used on going to bed. A large bucket, 
or any kind of a deep vessel, is used. Fill it up with as hot water as 
can well be borne, place the feet in it and throw a quilt over the limbs 
and lap to keep the heat in, and sit with the feet in this water for 30 
minutes, or longer if desired. As the water cools there can be hot 
water added occasionally so as to keep the water as hot as can be borne. 
If the patient is troubled with cold feet, there can be a tablespoonful 
of ground mustard added and well mixed with the water beforehand. 
If you should wish to sweat after the bath, you should drink some hot 
teas while taking the bath, such as ginger tea, or the smart weed, or a 



30 PEARLS OF WISDOM,. 

hot lemonade with a little whisky or capsicum (red pepper) added to 
it. To get the full benefit of such a bath you should go immediately 
to bed and have some hot irons to the feet, and cover up well. Keep 
still till you get into a sweat. 



THE HIP, or SITZ BATH. 

Sufficient water should be placed in a tub to cover the hips and 
lower portion of the abdomen. When the patient is in a sitting pos- 
ture the water can be made to any temperature to suit the immediate 
indications. And the patient should remain in the bath the length of 
time indicated by the physician. Most all physicians prescribe this 
bath for quite a number of diseases. We would add that in case of 
painful or even suppression of the monthlies, this bath is very good. 
Sometimes we order this and the foot bath also, (as described on page 
29), with the feet in the bucket of water, while at the same time you 
sit in the tub of water. 



Fevers, 



In the management of fevers, no matter of what kind or by what 
name it is called by the attendant physician, the nurse should know 
how to manage the patient to subdue the fever before it gets to such a 
high grade as to become threatening and dangerous to life. Here is where 
the sponge bath is always practicable, at whatever time of the day or 
night. When the fever is the highest then is the time that the patient 
should be sponged off with tepid water, not too cold, not hot. Part 
of the body can be gone over at a time, generally first the head and 
face, then one arm laid bare, then the other, then the breast, neck 
and bowels, then one leg, then the other ; cover up the body as you go ; 
then have the patient turn over on the side while you can sponge the 
back and limbs clear to the feet. This mode can be repeated every 
hour while the fever lasts, taking care that you do not sponge the pa- 
tient after the fever has gone down. 

Remember, that there is never any danger of any body taking cold 
in giving a sponge bath while the fever is on ; never. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL 31 

Again, remember, that, in all cases of fever, no matter what, the 
head should be kept cool by occasionally bathing the head and face- 
with the bare hand wet in water. This can be repeated often while 
the fever runs high ; while, at the same time the feet and lower ex- 
tremities should be watched very closely and kept warm day and 
night, even if it must be done with hot irons or jugs of hot water, or 
wrapped up with hot flannels, heated by the stove. Follow these rules, 
closely and nearly every case of fever can be controlled, and the pa- 
tient made well in a very short time. 



RULES TO OBSERVE. 

Rule 1 — Fever patients should have the right kind of nutritious- 
food to keep up and sustain the vital forces. The food should consist 
of beef extract, chicken or mutton broth, milk punch, etc., made as 
dricted on pages 14, 15, 17. This food must be given at intervals of 
from two to three hours apart, only a little at a time. Great quanti- 
ties of food must not be forced upon the patient. Patients never re- 
quire very much food when sick. Never disturb or wake your patient 
up to give them medicine or food, unless they are under the influence 
of narcotic medicines, when it is known that they will fall asleep im- 
mediately afterwards, as sleep will do your patient more good than 
medicine ; but watch them. As soon as they wake up be ready to 
give the medicines with the least disturbance about it, that they may 
get quiet and go to sleep again, regardless if it is over the time that it 
should have been given if they had been awake. 

Rule 2 — See to it that the room is well ventilated. If it is winter 
time the room should be kept 60 to 70 deg. Fahrenheit, unless during 
the time the fever is the highest. In summer time there is not much 
danger of the cold air, if you have plenty of clothes to regulate the 
temperature of the body. But the lungs must have fresh air and 
plenty of it. 

Rule 4 — Do not go from the cold air to the bedside of the sick ; 
especially if the patient is in a perspiration, or the patient has rheu- 
matism ; for the skin is very sensitive, and you had better wait in a 
warm room first till you get warm. No person has any idea of the 
pain and suffering of this disease unless they have had it themselves. 
Every joint is racked with pain, and the least touch of cold air or fin- 
gers adds to the suffering. Even the banging of a door, the shutting 
of a window, or the squeaking of a shoe or a boot, is but adding agony 
to the patient, and must be avoided. 



32 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

Rule 4 — Do not have old bottles setting around. When you are- 
through with the bottle that has been prescribed throw away the 
medicine and wash out your bottle, and set it away. It is best not to 
keep medicines over for another case of sickness, because it is never 
wanted. 

Rule 5. To change the dress of a patient — Much distress is often 
caused by not properly understanding just how to proceed to get the- 
arms in and out of the sleeves, and is often attended with difficulty- 
If the infliction is likely to continue. First, rip the sleeves open, then 
tack on some strings so that the sleeve can be tied. This will not in- 
jure the garment and it can be sewed up again when needed. 

Rule 6 — There is a secret in handling a broken bone or a sore 
limb. Never take hold -with the points of your thumb and finger as 
though you were afraid of it ; but take a firm grasp, or slip your hand 
under and let the limb lie in the palm of your hand, then support it 
with your thumb and finger. All nervous handling produces fear in 
the patient ; while the patient always feels safe in the firm grasp and a, 
steady nerve. 



Tlie Home Medicine Cliest. 



Every family has more or less medicine about their house ; but 
usually, however, they are kept carelessly sitting around in no place 
in particular. It is well to have some small box, with a lock on it r 
and always kept in some convenient place. It would be useless for 
every house to keep a drug store ; but it is always well enough to keep 
a few reliable medicines, such as you would be likely to use in a case 
of emergency. But let me entreat you, never do you keep or buy 
any patent medicines, the ingredients of which are not known to you.. 
There has been more damage produced by thein than good accom- 
plished ; and, for the most part, they have been put up by ignorant 
pretenders, whose sole object is to get your money. Keep your castor 
oil, sweet oil, a vial of laudanum, a little tincture of lobelia, syrup of 
ipecac, spirits of camphor, a bottle of glycerine and a vial of syrup of 
rhubarb. Keep in your chest a roll of lint, a roll of linen, a piece of 
flannel, some sticking plaster. Have your physician put you up a 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 33 

bottle of medicine for burns and scalds, and have a place for it in your 
chest. These are some of the medicines that every family should 
keep on hand ; not too many — only those which you know how to use. 
And for obvious reasons they should always be kept by themselves 
where they could be had at a moment's notice — all well labeled that 
you may make no mistake. 



Hemorrhage, 



BLEEDING, AND HOW TO STOP IT. 



Many a fond mother has had a terrible fright by her child running 
in with its face and clothes all smeared over with blood. It is aston- 
ishing to see what a big mark a very little blood will make. But then 
it is no wonder that bleeding will produce fright ; animals will instinct- 
ively rush to the spot where one of their kind is bleeding to death. 
Blood is the life, and where there is much loss of it life is endangered. 
Xow. there is something about the structure of the body that every- 
body should understand ; indeed, a full knowledge of the entire struc- 
ture of the human body should be acquired by everyone. It is to be 
hoped that this knowledge will be one of the "fundamental branches 
taught in our public schools at no distant day. At least every child 
should be taught this important knowledge. They should be as famil- 
iar with the bones and their structure and uses, all the blood vessels, 
their origin and course, as they are of the rivers and lakes of the 
country ; for no one can afford to be ignorant of the situation of the 
blood vessels ; because some day, in the course of their lives, it may 
be a question with them of life and death, or that of some one of their 
friends. Accidents may happen to anyone. If the body is torn, cut 
or injured in any way, some one of the important blood vessels may 
be involved, and death may be the rusult in a very few moments, sim- 
ply because no one present may have obtained the knowledge which 
they might have possessed with a very little study. Therefore it is 
very hard for us to give you rules to stop bleeding, for we do not ex- 
pect everyone who reads this little book to understand anatomy. We 
cannot tell you as we would were you acquainted with the circulatory 
system ; yet, if you will follow us through, what we do say we can give 
you a fair understanding of it. 



"34 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



BLEEDING FROM THE NOSE. 

Occasionally we find a person bleeding from the nose ; that is 
quite troublesome. The cause is generally concealed in the nervous sys- 
tem — debility of the nervous system. Loss of nervous force is the usual 
cause of hemorrhage, whether "from the lungs, anus, nose, stomach or 
other parts of the body. Therefore, the true remedy consists in whatever 
restores vigor to the nervous system. Hamamelis (witch hazel) bark 
•or pulverized borax applied within the nostrils will stop the bleeding 
very soon. In the meantime cold water should be poured upon the 
wrists and back of the neck until the parts are very much reduced in 
temperature, thus arresting the rush of blood to the head. Also, if 
you feel that the bleeding is going to commence, press on the large veins 
•on either side of the throat, rubbing downwards gently. 



BLEEDING ABOVE THE EAR. 

If there is a wound above the ear, on either side of the head, place 
your finger about a quarter of an inch in front of the ear, upon the 
side injured, and press hard on your finger, as this point will be on the 
blood vessel that carries the blood from the heart up along the temple 
to the side of the head. 



BLEEDING BELOW THE EYES. 

All of the small arteries that carry the blood to the outside of the 
face, nose, lips and muscles of the face, spring from one main artery 
that passes over the under jaw about half-way from the angle to the 
point of the chin. Therefore, if you will place a nickle on your thumb 
over the lower edge of the jawbone you will at once arrest the 
bleeding. 



BLEEDING FROM A WOUND IN AN ARM. 

Grasp the arm about two inches below the arm-pit ; press tightly 
upon that portion which lies next to the body and a little in front of 
the center of the arm-pit. Or you can make a roll or pad and place 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 35 

on the artery at this point, and tie a handkerchief around the part 
tightly, just below the arm-pit. Treated in this way will check all 
bleeding below this point till you can send for your physician to come 
.and tie the artery and dress the wound properly and as it should be. 

BLEEDING FROM WOUNDS IN THE LEG OR FOOT. 

Lie down and support the limb above the head of the body. Now 
press upon the large artery which lies in front of the thigh, about 
mid- way of the leg, just below the groin. Fix a roll or pad, (just as 
directed to fix the pad to stop the bleeding of the arm), or if you are 
in the field by yourself, and should get a severe cut with the scythe or 
some other sharp instrument, no matter what, just take a handful of 
dry earth and clasp it to the wound and hold it tightly there with the 
hand till you can get assistance. 

BLEEDING FROM THE STOMACH. 

It is frightful to see any one vomiting blood, and it .is quite dan- 
gerous ; but not always as dangerous as it appears. Sometimes it is a 
question whether it is from the stomach or from the lungs. The blood 
from the stomach is darker in its color than the blood from the lungs, 
and it is frequently mixed with food and stringy and ropy. 

Remedy. — Give two teaspoonfuls of vinegar, or lemon juice in a 
little cold water, and repeat it every half hour till the bleeding stops, 
or till your physician comes. You can also give a little cracked ice, 
if you have it, and nothing more, unless you understand medicine. 

BLEEDING FROM THE LUNGS. 

You will know that the blood is from the lungs from it being con- 
stantly coughed up instead of vomiting ; besides it is a scarlet color 
Instead of being a dark color like that from the stomach, and it is frothy 
in its nature. Keep the shoulders raised pretty high by pillows ; 
sponge the chest off with cold water and a little vinegar; make no ex- 
ertion by talking ; keep quiet; give the patient just a little bit of salt, 
half a teaspoonful at a dose, taken dry, and repeat it often in small 
doses. These are the only means at hand to be used by the common 
people, and many times they are the best that can be used when they 
do the work. The other agents belong to the doctor, and it requires an 
•education and experience to use them successfully and with safety. 



36 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



"Wounds. 



Wounds become dangerous more from their position than from 
their size. A small punctured wound may be more dangerous than a 
large cut.; or, a small wound in a certain place may be more danger- 
ous, while a large cut or wound in some other spot may not be attend- 
ed with any danger whatever. If it be dark colored blood and flows 
with regularity, you may be able to manage it : but if it spurts out 
with little jets, however small the wound may be, you must use the 
same means to stop it as directed in chapter on how to stop bleeding, 
(by compress and bandage), and then send for your doctor at once. 
Outs on the head, in the hair, cannot be dressed with a plaster. They 
may be dangerous even when yeu do not think so. 

Wounds from splinters, nails, or from glass, must not be closed 
immediately. You must let the doctor see them. 



BROKEN BONES AND DISLOCATIONS. 

Of course you could not expect us to give you a treatise how to 
remedy this difficulty, for this could not be done in so small a book. 
We can only say that broken bones are easily detected by the patient 
not being able to raise the limb, by its bending or grating sound be- 
tween where there are no joints. You may not be able to detect it, 
whether it is a dislocation, a fracture or a broken bone. Unless you 
are quite sure it is a case of out-of-joint you had better not undertake 
to jerk or pull it. Wait till the surgeon comes. Always take the 
►safe side. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 37 



Infectious Diseases* 



These are propagated by a specific of contagion, which gains ac- 
cess to the blood, thereby generating a virous in the system. They 
are contracted by inhalation of gaseous exhalations from patients 
suffering from diseases, or from the discharged materials from the 
lungs, skin or bowels. The atmosphere in neighborhoods may be so 
impregnated with this specific poison as to cause what is known as an 
Epidemic. 

When a quantity of contageous matter, however small, is intro- 
duced into the blood of a healthy person, it will be propagated into 
the blood, and the disease is the result. You must never undertake 
the treatment of these diseases yourself ; better employ a good phy- 
sician and a good nurse, and this will be enough for you to know that 
you have supplied the best means at your command. When the skin 
begins to peel off, if it is a child, you will find it constantly picking at 
the nose, lips, teeth, or finger nails. It is a curious fact, how they 
will interest themselves for hours, picking at themselves till they 
"bleed, without seeming to feel the least pain ; nor is it any use for you 
to find fault with them, or even threaten them, for it will do no good ; 
it seems to be a part of the disease. Your only remedy is to place 
mittens upon the hands. After scarlet fever or small-pox, the room, 
together with all of its furniture, should be thoroughly disinfected- 
To accomplish this, cleanse the floor with hot water and lime, or car- 
bolic acid ; close the room air-tight, after removing everything wet 
or moist from it, and then you can burn flour of sulphur ; this can be 
done by placing an iron kettle, with legs to it, in the center of the 
room. Or better still : Heat the kettle sufficiently hot to burn sul- 
phur in it, then throw or sprinkle two or three ounces of sulphur in 
the kettle, then hasten out and close the door tight ; let this remain 
closed for three or four hours, then it can be opened and aired for 
several days ; then if you should whitewash the walls, your room would 
be as pure as it ever was. 



38 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



WHOOPING-COUGH. 

This disease does not show itself in two or three days. At first the 
symptoms are merely that of a slight cold ; the child has a short, dry 
cough, particularly upon food being taken ; this will continue, perhaps, 
for a week, or longer, before you will notice any other particular symp- 
toms arise. Now, the fit of coughing is preceded by a convulsive drawing 
in of the breath, which, as it rushes into the lungs, causes the pecu- 
liar Whoop ; the cough lasts for a minute or two, then generally ends 
with vomiting; the breathing is then quiet for a time, and the child is 
comparatively at ease, until the next spasm of coughing comes on. 
Children under two years of age are generally exposed to more danger 
in this disease than older ones. However, if the child has convulsive 
coughs, we would advise you to seek for medical advice. Our late 
medical progress has done much towards a successful management 
of this disease, the Eclectic in particular, to which class of practition- 
ers the author feels proud to belong. They have done much, of late 
years, by the use of newly discovered remedies, to mitigate the suff- 
ering from whooping-cough, and many children are cured without 
going through the usual prolonged and allotted time for the disease. 
But we feel that we cannot give you a special treatment here for this 
complicated disease. It is not the purpose of this little book to advise 
you to handle medical agents which you know nothing about; but to 
point out to you the true road for you to follow to gain your health. 
Besides we feel opposed to anybody handling medical agents without 
a thorough knowledge of medicine. In mild cases, and with best care, 
the following medicine, red pepper tea sweetened with honey, with a 
few drops of tincture of lobelia, used as a gargle several times a day, 
will be all that is necessary in most of these cases ; but you must pro- 
tect the chest with suitable thick clothing and keep the feet warm and 
dry. You must not resort to the usual cough medicines and syrups, 
for they will do no good and many times produce injury. 



CROUP. 

Croup is a very alarming disease, and well it may be ; for it re- 
quires immediate treatment in many cases to save life. Sometimes it 
runs a very rapid course and destroys life in a very few hours. We 
will tell you how you can recognize it. It commences with a short 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOE ALL. 39 

dry cough ; but the cough always sounds hoarse, then the breathing 
is increased and labored — there is a pecular rasping, or grating, or 
choking sound, which seems to proceed from the throat. Now, if you 
have got a case of this kind on your hands you must immediately go 
to work. Here we can give you a reliable treatment that will always 
do good service : 

Tincture of ipecac 1 drachm. 

Tincture of lobelia seed 1 " 

Tincture of aconite root 10 drops. 

Powdered niter 4 drachms. 

Bromide of potassium 20 grains. 

Glycerine 4 ounces. 

Distilled water 1 ounce- 

Mix all together and shake well. 

Take this prescription to your druggist and get him to put it up 
for you. 

It will keep for years. Take it home and put it away in your medi- 
cine chest, as described on page 32. Have it marked plainly on the label, 
""For Croup. Dose : Teaspoonful every half hour till relief, then prolong 
the intervals as the case may require." Now commence treatment 
promptly. Give a dose of the above medicine, then make a poultice 
of bran, add some ground mustard to the poultice, apply it to the 
breast and throat and keep it there till it reddens the skin. Place the 
child's feet in hot water, as hot as it can bear it, and keep them - there 
all the while by adding more hot water occasionally till the child gets 
better and breathes easier. The author has saved the lives of hundreds 
of children by this prompt treatment. It will not fail if taken in 
time. But you must keep calm and do not get frightened, so that you 
•do not know what you are doing, and you will be astonished to see 
how soon your child will come out of those alarming symptoms, and 
get well quick. 

CHILDREN'S CONVULSIONS OR FITS. 

These conditions arise from many causes. Sometimes from teeth- 
ing, from worms, or from hard, indigestible food that has been eaten 
— anything that will tend to irritate the stomach and bowels ; or the 
overloading of the stomach may produce those convulsions. There 
may be something wrong with the brain, or they may be produced 
irom previous injury, from a fall, or in some other way. But if the 
child is suffering from a fit, do not get frightened or excited ; but take 
things calmly, for you can work faster when you are cool and delib- 



40 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

■erate, and to a good deal better advantage, by collecting your thoughts 
arid working by the dictates of your deliberate judgment. First, seek 
at once the advice of your physician. If he is not at hand when the 
fit comes on take some cloths and dip them into some hot mustard 
water and wrap up the child's feet and lower parts of the limbs till 
the skin is quite red, and as soon as opportunity is offered give a tea- 
spoonful of syrup of ipecac, or 20 drops of tincture of lobelia, (each 
of which should always be kept in your medicine chest, see page 32), 
and try to induce sickness at the stomach and vomiting, if possible. 
If the head should appear hot you should apply cold water. This is 
good treatment and often will bring the child out all right. But when 
the doctor comes he will find out the cause, and prescribe for you 
accordingly. 

DIARRHOEA. 

Bowel complaint occurs every Summer, and often proves fatal to 
young children. It has been thought the eating of fruits was the 
cause of children's diarrhoea, as it generally occurs at the time that 
the fruits are ripening and being gathered. But we think that good, 
ripe fruit, if perfectly sound and fresh, will do no harm in most cases. 
While we believe that half-ripe or decayed fruits or vegetables are 
very unhealthy and but little better than poison. Now, it requires very 
good judgment to manage successfully all diseases of this kind, and 
no person, ignorant of medicine, should ever tamper with the life of 
a child by experiment. Neither should they delay, with the hope of 
the child getting well of itself. Delays and ignorance in the manage- 
ment of such diseases have been the cause of many deaths. In many 
cases, where it is allowed to run too long, there are generally very se- 
rious complications set up that cannot be very easily controlled. But 
it is your duty to commence at once with the proper food and the sim- 
ple remedies, such as described on pages 21, 24 and 25. This will do 
no harm, and in many cases will cure the case in two or three days. 
But if there is no change hi that time, you should consult your phy- 
sician at once, who will tell you, if he is an intelligent physician, 
that you have given .the patient the right treatment,, and he will 
not order you to change the diet. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 41 



DYSENTERY OR BLOODY FLUX. 

This distressing disease, of all others, may be controlled and cured 
by very simple methods, if not let run too long, till it becomes chronic. 
The first thing to be done, as in Diarrhoea, is to stop all kinds of food, 
except the beef extract, milk punch, oatmeal water and mush, as de- 
scribed on pages 14, 15, 16 and 17. But slippery elm, or flax-seed teas 
made from the water, or from the oatmeal, used as injections after 
each evacuation from the bowels, are not to be omitted. About two 
tablespoonfuls at a time, or as much as can be retained for a while. 
'Bilious persons, having the obstinate form of this disease, will find 
great virtue in the following prescription : 

Turkey rhubarb and willow charcoal, of each (pulverized! one 
tabiespoonful. 

Of saleratus, a piece as large as a hazel-nut. 

I The charcoal, put up in bottles, can be had at the drug store.) 

The golden seal (hydrastis) half a teaspoonful. 

Add these ingredients to a tumblerful of water ; stir up well ; let 
it stand covered up, twelve hours, when, after thoroughly stirring it, 
the liquid will be ready for use. 

Dose : Teaspoonful of the liquid once in every four hours during 
the day. 

Xow then, remember that you are never to wake up at night 
to take medicine. Sleep will do you more good than to be dis- 
turbed of a quiet, easy sleep. We cannot too strongly urge the value 
of hand magnetism. In restoring the balance of health to the system, 
not only in this but in every disease, no matter what, and especially 
would we impress upon you to remember that in all stomach and 
bowel troubles, the Witt is a very powerful physician. Therefore, do 
not fail to avail yourself of his skill and beneficence. Always keep 
your feet and bowels warm and dry. Always sleep with your mouth 
closed, that the air may pass up through the nostrils into your lungs, 
that it may be pure and more magnetic, and therefore more energizing 
to your system, and thank the Universal God of Nature that in Him 
you "live and move and have a being," and your face will soon shine 
with gladness, and your cheeks will blush with intensified vigor. 



42 PEARLS OP WISDOM, 



Medicines for a Happy Home. 



Not only should we cultivate such tempers as serve to render the 
intercourse of home amiable and affectionate, but we should strive to 
adorn it with those charms which good sense, judgment and refine- 
ment that is so easily imparted to it. We say, easily, for there are 
persons who think that a home cannot be made beautiful without a 
considerable outlay of expense in money. Such people are in great 
error. It costs but very little to have a neat flower-garden, and to 
surround your dwelling with those simple beauties which delight the 
eye far more than expensive objects. Nature delights in beauty ; she 
loves to brighten the landscape and make it agreeable to the eye. She 
hangs the ivy all around the ruin, as well as runs it over the stumps 
of withered trees. She twines the graceful vine. A thousand arts 
she practices to animate and please the mind. Folio w t her example, 
and do for yourself what she is always laboring to do for you. — Cotton. 

We are glad to make the above quotation, for it is not only a med- 
ical whisper, but rather a short sermon on love, which may prove the 
best remedy after all to heal many of the infirmities ; the best medi- 
cine in our pharmacy that we have got, for perhaps you have lost the 
bright, fresh feelings of the soul. 

But we would add, if the writer had only made a more comprehen- 
sive supposition (including all the married throughout the world), we 
could reply affirmatively ; except, of course, all of such ordinary 
broils — those which are always so indispensable as to meet the de- 
mands of honest hunger. Let the already truly married still keep up 
the practice of early courtship. Don't let the principles of Harmonial 
Love and wisdom ever become old and stale, and die out of your 
hearts, for it will always sound sweet to be again and again told that 
w T e are loved and appreciated by our conjugal companion ; for it al- 
ways acts upon the soul like a tonic. No matter how tired and vexed 
and w T orn out with the duties of the day, it will always stimulate you 
to new strength and vigor. And let all those who are about to em- 
bark upon their conjugal existence, regulate all of their attachments 
and live by spiritual delicacy and private truthfulness. Now, if all 
those who chance to read this prescription, will try it, we feel that we 
could guarantee that such a house would be a natural sanctuary of 
heavenly blessedness. The family circle would shine and sparkle like 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 43> 

a ring of diamonds. Then each throbbing heart would be a well- 
spring of love, tenderness, grace and gladness. All good angels would 
go in and out of such a sunny home, just exactly as the healthy chil- 
dren thereof would glide to and fro on the swift feet of unrestrained 
enjoyment. 

A divine joy is certain to pavilion such a happy home, and one 
tender hand is sure to embrace all hearts which come within its influ- 
ence, for it would be the very Gates of Heaven. 



Motherhood. 



This is a question which nearly all writers have evaded as harsh,, 
untimely, or felt that it would not be accepted as modest ; but we feel 
that the time has come when all people should put away all such false 
modesty, and deal with the real facts as they are, and such important 
facts that we all should want to know, and we all must meet them 
sooner or later, whether we will or not. 

Motherhood is the crowning glory of "Womanhood. But the am- 
bition of the mother should be that of bringing of the germ of able- 
bodied, great-hearted, glorious men and women, who will always be 
ready to do and to dare for the truth's sake, for humanity's sake. The 
salvation of the human race all lies in the practical recognition of one 
important principle — one which, by future generations, if not now, in 
the light of our present science, must be pre-eminently acknowledged 
as an unquestionable truth, viz : That she, who is the continued origi- 
nator of the race, she, whose power and influence for weal or woe, 
must be handed down through her posterity during all coming time, 
she must be educated to, #nd shall be granted the inalienable, indis- 
putable right to determine for herself when she can lovingly take up- 
on herself the responsibilities of Motherhood. The time has already 
come when the mass of our thinking people have come to see and to 
know the one important, but hitherto neglected, lesson learnt, that we 
are guilty of a heinous crime, and one which nature never pardons, 
when we will knowingly allow ourselves to become the instruments 
of bringing into existence human beings whose lives area curse to the 
world and to themselves, rather than a blessing. Young men as well 
as old must also be educated up to this point, to see the facts as they 
really are. 



44 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

Till within a very short period physiology has formed no part of 
the education of parents, and the simplest elements of anatomy have 
been entirely unknown to mothers; Maidens have entered upon the 
possibilities of maternity without the slightest information regarding 
the structure of their bodies, and still less of the powers of foetal de- 
velopment and intelligent understanding of the inevitable inquiries 
attending its arrest ; and what is still more ludicrous, were it not so 
very sad, ignorant even of the conditions of parturition. This, we 
claim, is all wrong ; besides there is no excuse for it. We mu'st charge 
it upon an ignorant Father or Motherhood — Motherhood not yet con- 
scious of its high duties, to instruct their children, at least as far as 
they know themselves, as well as to urge it upon their children to seek 
for all the knowledge upon those subjects that they can possibly avail 
themselves of. 

It must be clear to every thinking mind, that it is not probable 
that there will be any visible decrease in the crime of this world -till 
the pulpit and the press, as well as the law-making power, are con- 
vinced that no persuasion, or education, or even punishment, or stat- 
utory enactments, can ever be made to cure those who are organically, 
morally, mentally or physically diseased. As the unborn individual 
cannot be consulted as to the character of his mind, or his intellectual 
powers, he is, therefore, dependent upon the condition, and the char- 
acter, and the intellectual and moral character of his immediate pro- 
genitors. Indeed, he has no more control over his moral or mental 
organization than he has over the color of his eyes or his hair. 

Our organization is made for us and not by us. Our present educa- 
tional and religious institutions have not, and cannot, prevent the com- 
mission or increase of crime. 

Why has not man sought out the means of developing and per- 
fecting the human forms of his children as well as he has improved 
the stock of the animal kingdom below him ? We do not want pas- 
sionless men, but men with strong passion, held resolutely under the 
check of an enlightened reason and conscientious individualty. It is high 
time that marriage should be regarded as something higher and nobler 
than a mere condition granting license to the passions. Let human 
beings enter into the marriage relation for the sole purpose of compan- 
ionship, for mutual improvement, and- for the development of their 
own and each other's noblest, best traits of character. Then, when 
offspring is desired, let the prospective father and mother seek to com- 
bine the very best advantages for the expression of their own and" 
each other's forces, so that their children shall enter upon their earthly 
career with all of those excellencies of physique and character that 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 45 

adorn the noblest specimens of man or womanhood. The children of 
such parents, conceived under such conditions, receive, at the moment 
of conception, an impetus towards the good and the imperishable that 
no vicissitudes of life can ever obliterate. Such children will never 
fall into vice, but rather, as we see them grow up to maturity, the very 
sight of such noble specimens of men and women will be looked upon 
and considered as the protecting arni* thrown out and around to em- 
brace and protect the human race. Happy are the parents whose 
children love life and all of its opportunities. Kappyare the children 
whose parents derive the greatest joy from their beautiful lives. 



Maxims. 



1st. Never eat a late supper and go to bed with a full stomach. 

2d. Never sleep with your hands over your head. It impedes 
the circulation, and will produce heart disease. 

3d. Xever bathe the head with cold water, but hot, for all dis- 

- of the brain. 

4th. Human magnetism, the life principle, maybe imparted from 
one to another, and is a very potent medicine in all diseases. 

5th. Sorrow, grief, fear or any other extraordinary emotion, will 
So to be well you must be cheerful and wear a pleasant 
countenance. 

6th. Xever allow a child to sleep with an adult. There is an in- 
visible magnetic atmosphere of sympathy emanating from and sub- 
sisting between individuals, which, if youth and maturity is brought 
into close conjunction, will always result in permanent injury to the 
youngest organization. It is a well ascertained fact that the aged will 
attract vigor and youthfulness from the young, therefore disease will 
always draw strength from the healthy, should the two continue to 
sleep together. 

7th. Xever sleep upon any description oi feathers, for they impart 
no life-giving element ; but will always draw from you many of the 
atmospherical energies which emenate from and surround you at all 
times, and you will always arise in the morning tired and weary, with- 
out knowing that it was the feathers which had exhausted all of your 
vital strength. 



46 PEARLS OP WISDOM, 

8th. Never permit a sick and feverish person to wear the same 
garment, or repose between the same sheets, longer than two days, 
because the positive disease of the patient, during the fever, is always 
absorbed by the contagious substances of the body. 

9th. You should never frighten, deceive or tell a lie to your 
child, because it is so unnatural, and besides it is very wicked. 

10th. Never love your child unrighteously. That is to say, never 
permit your love to smother your judgment nor blind the voice of 
reason, for you must know that sympathy (or love) is only serviceable* 
when wisely bestowed. 

11th. It is more easy to manage and educate a child before its 
birth than it ever will be subsequent to that event, because the indi- 
vidualism is moulded, and consequently manufactured, more or less 
perfect in the native womb, and because, also, birth is before thinking. 

12th. Never make your child feel you to be its master, nor an in- 
ferior, nor a superior, but an honorable associate. You should always 
substitute examples, truth and association for deception and lies, in 
your so-called family government. 

13th. You must learn to will and act, ere the child comes to live 
among you, as you would have the child will and act before the world. 

14th. The unborn child is a mirror, which will faithfully reflect 
all the wickedness and imperfections, or the goodness or righteousness, 
of its immediate progenitors. The era is nigh when even all the hid- 
den vices, as well as the secret transgressions of both the ignorant and 
educated parents will be recognized and read in the face, form and 
character of their offspring. — Davis. 

15th. Learn your child to do your will, and never decide with- 
out just foundation ; or, should you hastily decide, never alter your 
decision without first explaining, to the comprehension of your child, 
your reason or reasons for so doing. But it is far better to have your 
child have perfect confidence in your wisdom. 



Cause and Cure of Female Weakness. 



What means these peace-destroying symptoms ? Bearing down 
in the lower part of the abdomen, heat, dull pain, burning, weakness 
in the small of the back, sore place on the spine, small of the back so 
tender to the touch, dragging, aching in the loins, indisposition to 
bodily exercise, dread of walking — either far or fast, the feeling wear- 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOE ALL. . 47 

ied and then of numbness in the limbs. Why are our married women 
so capricious of temper, so childish, at times so given to transition 
from cold sensations to that of hot flashes ; then from amiableness to 
peevishness, and fretful, with scrofulous swellings? Why are our 
children born with broken-down blood globules floating through their 
infant hearts ? Why do their young bones absolutely ache with volup- 
tious fatigue, transmitted by ignorant parents ? 

Every ganglionic center is a telegraphic station ; it receives im- 
pressions and transmits the signs and disturbances from point to point. 
Who wonders that our children are scrofulous, and so fond of sweets 
and stimulants ? Who, that can trace the relation between one cause 
and another, will still grope around yet longer and ask the learned 
physician to explain why women are sick and unfit for ordinary du- 
ties of house-keeping ? The principal cause of woman's suffering lies 
in Prolapsus Uteri, (falling of the womb,) Retroversions, Antiversion, 
and all other kinds of displacement; Whites, (Leucorrhea,) then in- 
flammation and ulceration of the womb. Those are the main causes 
which afflict three-fourths of the women of this country ; yes, it is no 
use to attempt to disguise the fact that they are suffering, eking out a 
miserable existence, many of them without hope that there is any 
relief to be found for them, while many others, through false modesty , 
suffer and die in silence rather than consult a competent physician for 
relief ; but, nevertheless, sooner or later the truth must be told that 
the main cause of all of these reproductive diseases are caused origi- 
nally by excessive and unrestrained indulgences of ( the animal inclina- 
tions, through ignorance. Neither man nor woman have comprehended 
the primal cause of their suffering ; or what would be still worse — 
those, who knowing the truth, will further practice the ungodly habit 
of intemperate reproduction. But, if you would be wise and strong, 
you should seek advice from intelligent persons, and reading books 
upon these subjects. Fathers and mothers should commence the 
teaching of their children, as early in life as they could understand, all 
that they know themselves, as well as to surround them with useful 
books to read, that their children should not grow up in ignorance of 
the natural laws and functions of the organs of the human body, and 
their uses, as well as to know the consequent suffering from their 
abuses. This subject is entirely too broad and deep for us to go into 
full details. This little book is intended only to hint at the different 
subjects and point out the way you should do, and give you such 
knowledge and treatment that is practicable, which will tend to relieve 
your immediate suffering, as well as to teach you how you can keep 
well, and to prevent the suffering of others. 



48 ■ PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

But, first of all, we must give you our opinion, based upon twenty 
.years' practice with female diseases, that the introductions and use of 
all kinds of Pessaries and Uterine Supporters have proved a failure to 
*cure the falling of the womb. They are not only useless, but they 
have proved to be very injurious. Now, the treatment we propose to 
.give you is very simple, but radical and positive- Every woman suffer- 
ing from those diseases should provide herself with a good soft rubber 
syringe — a No. 1 Davis or Mattson's are the best. With this instru- 
ment, properly used, she can cure herself of Whites, (Leucorrhea,) 
and many other kinds of vaginal irritations. 

Eemedy No. 1.— Take the white of one egg, beat it up well on a 
plate ; after which add a tablespoonfull of strained honey, thoroughly 
amalgamated ; after which add it to one pint of blood- warm water, 
ithen it is ready for use. 

No. 2. — To one pint of blood-warm water add five to six drops of 
diluted sulphuric acid ; mix well ; ready for use. 

No. 3. — One pint of warm water, one teaspoonful of baking soda 
added ; dissolve and mix well ; ready for use. 

No. 4. — One quart of warm water ; add one teaspoonfull of table- 
•salt ; dissolve well ; ready for use. 

No. 5.— One pint of warm water; add tablespoonful of ox-gall; 
mix ; ready for use. 

Nos. 6 and 7. — Make a decoction from the plantain leaves, which 
grow in your door-yards in great abundance, or a decoction from the 
walnut leaves, andjise a quart at one time, blood warm. 

Directions for Using the same. — Where there is much discharge 
irom the vagina, you should first cleanse the part out with castile soap- 
suds, injected with your syringe ; after which you can use Eemedy No. 
1, commencing in the morning and inject slowly, that the medicine 
may have a chance to affect all the parts of the vagina. At noon you 
can use No. 2, and at bedtime use No. 3 in like manner. Use those 
remedies for several days in succession, then you can substitute either 
one of the other remedies, and thus you can alternate them until you 
get well. In the meantime you can take the following medicine in- 
fernally ; get your druggist to put it up : 

Fluid extract black cohosh 1 drachm. 

Fluid extract chamomile 

Fluid extract of dandelion lounce. 

Glycerine sufficient to make a four-ounce mixture. 
Dose. — Teaspoonfull one hour after each meal. 

This treatment persisted in will cure any ordinary case. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 49 

In cases of falling of the womb, or where there is a little inflam- 
mation or ulceration, it can be cured by the following medicine ; get 
your druggist to put it up for you : 

Glycerine 6 ounces. 

Tanic acid \ " 

Mix by a gentle heat till the acid is all dissolved. Then take a 
tuft of fine cotton, about the size of a small hulled walnut ; after tuck- 
ing the fringed edges over to the center, take four stitches through 
the tuft of cotton with a strong patent thread ; soak this tuft of cot- 
ton in the glycerine and tannin medicine. Just before going to bed, 
let some lady friend insert this tuft of cotton (soaked with glycerine 
of tannin) up the vagina as far as she can push it with the finger, 
leaving three or four inches of the thread hanging outside ; keep this 
in till ten or eleven o'clock next day, then by the thread you can draw 
it out and throw it away ; then inject a little warm soap-suds, and 
rinse out the parts. This tanic acid mixture will stain your sheets or 
clothes ; better prepare for it. This treatment, with the cotton tuft 
and glycerine medicine, can be kept up every evening, or every other 
day, or third day, as the nature of the case demands ; from five to six 
applications is generally sufficient to effect a cure, by keeping up the 
other washes and injections between times. 

This method of treatment and handling those diseases are simple 
and harmless, and perfectly reliable. The author has had no occasion 
to use any other remedies for many years. The treatment is always fol- 
lowed with marked success. However, we might add, that when there is 
much irritation, smarting or burning sensation in the walls of the 
vagina, it can soon be healed up and cured, by beating up well on a 
dinner plate, the white of one egg, and add it to a pint of warm water 
to be used with the syringe as an injection wash, in place of one of 
the other injections. 



50 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



Accidents and Emergencies. 



Under this head, which properly commences on page 33, we will 
continue here by giving you a number of prescriptions. 



BURNS AND SCALDS. 

1. A liniment composed of equal parts of lime-water and linseed 
oil, is a superior application for burns. The lime-water alone is ex- 
cellent. 

2. Dissolve two ounces of alum in one pint of hot water. Satu- 
rate cotton cloths with this solution and keep the burn well wrapped 
in them. The pain will quickly cease and the process of healing will 
soon commence. 

3. Two tablespoonfuls of bicarbonate of soda dissolved in one 
pint of hot water. Saturate cotton cloths with this solution and keep 
the parts w r ell wrapped up, and the cloths constantly kept wet with 
this solution. The pain will soon cease and the process of healing 
will soon commence. 

Care should be taken not to let the parts be exposed to the air for 
one moment from the time of the first application, by the change of 
the dressing. This can be accomplished by handling the burnt parts 
under the water while dressing. Burns and scalds will heal rapidly, 
without leaving a scar, if attended to in this manner. 

When the clothing of a person catches fire, throw them on the 
-ground and roll them up in a piece of carpet, or a bed quilt is still bet- 
ter. This will extinguish the flames. If those articles are not at hand 
then take your coat and use it instead. Begin the wrapping at the 
neck and shoulders and wrap downwards, so as to keep the flames 
from the head and face. Cover all again with damp clothes, several 
thicknesses. This will soon extinguish the flames; after which the 
.burnt parts can be dressed with Cosmoline. This is a new remedy, 
and it is an excellent one. After covering the Cosmoline with only 
one thickness of cotton cloth, then wrap the entire dressing with raw 
cotton to exclude the air. If the weather is very warm the Cosmoline 
.dressing should be renewed twice per day ; otherwise, every other day 



OEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL 51 

will be sufficient. The dressing should take place under the water, if 
possible, to exclude the air from the burnt parts. 

The above remedies and treatment are the best known, and adopted 
by all the profession. We present quite a number of them, from the 
fact that it often happens that only one remedy is at hand and ready 
tor use, whilst the others might not be had without the loss of much 
valuable time, while any one of the above is very good. 



POISON VINE ; POISON OAK. 

Remedy. — Mix a small quantit} 1- of starch with sufficient glycerine 
to form a thick paste and apply to the poisoned parts. This is excel- 
lent. One application is generally sufficient to effect a cure ; if not, it 
may be repeated on the following morning. This, in the author's hands , 
has never been known to fail. Before the application, bathe the parts 
In hot water, almost hot enough to scald the flesh. 

But, as this remedy may not|always be at hand, we will give another: 

Baking soda, or common washing soda, will remove this difficulty 
very promptly by adding sufficient water to the soda to form a paste, 
and apply it thoroughly once or twice a day. It will usually kill the 
poison in from two to four days. 

The following is from Prof. Bundy, of Oakland, Cal., in which 
State poisoning is of very frequent occurrence from the poison oak- 
Take of the 

Fluid extract of grindelia robusta 2 drachms. 

Glycerine 2 ounces. 

Mix and apply to the affected parts three or four times daily. 

This is a new remedy, and is a specific for the poison oak poison- 
ing; in fact so much so that no other treatment need be mentioned. 
This remedy can now be always found at the drug stores. 



SPIDER BITES. 

1. Catnip and plantain (which grows in nearly everybody's door- 
yard) equal parts, bruised and applied to the wound, is a prompt and 
effectual remedy for the cure of the bite of a spider, or any other in- 
sect. A teaspoonf ul of the juice of the plantain should be taken inter- 
nally every hour, at the same time. This is also a cure for a hornet or 
a bee sting. Then in case these remedies are not handy we will give 
you some other remedies. 



52 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

2. Table salt and baking power, equal parts, bound on the parts. 
This will immediately arrest the swelling and relieve the pain. 

3. The common onion is another remedy for the same purpose. 
A piece is to be cut off and at once applied on the wound. .Dr. Hill 
uses no other remedy than this for stings, etc. If the pieces of onion 
are changed every few minutes, the pain, he says, diminishes imme- 
diately. 

Accessory Measures. — If a wasp, or other stinging insect, be the 
cause of the trouble, examination must be made to see if the sting is 
left in the flesh, as this is often the case. Then the sting must be ex- 
tracted by the fingers or a pair of fine-pointed forceps. 

SNAKE BITES. 

The first object to be attempted, in such cases, is to arrest the cir- 
culation of the blood, from the part bitten, as soon as possible. This 
can be done by tying a handkerchief or rope tightly around the limb, 
between the wound and the heart, as directed on page 33 (to stop 
hemorrhage.) The wound should be sucked with all the force the 
patient can command, or have some person do it for him. No danger 
attached to the person thus sucking the wound, so long as the poison 
does not come in contact with any abraded or raw surface of the 
mouth or other parts of the body. If any considerable time has 
elapsed after the bite, and before the application has been made, then 
there should be made a small incision of the flesh, with a knife, acioss 
the wound, in order, more readily, to admit the solution into the 
wound, after which the bruised plantain will do you good service, as 
before described. If that is not at hand, the next best remedy is 
moistened saleratus and bound on the bite. Then dissolve more and 
keep the parts wet with it for a few hours. This remedy has not yet 
been known to fail to cure the bite of a snake. 

The old remedy is to drink plenty of good brandy till you get in- 
toxicated ; and then it sometimes fails. 

We would rather use the plaintain externally and internally. 



CRAMP IN THE PIT OF THE STOMACH. 

■ . - 

Severe, pinching, gnawing, or contractive pains in the stoma* h, 
generally occurring after taking food. 

Cause. — Highly seasoned or indigestible food; stimulants, coffee 
and tobacco ; long fasting, exposure to cold or damp, etc. It is usually 
but a symptom of indigestion. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 53 

Remedy. — Most forms of this difficulty can be effectually cured in 
a few minutes by a very simple means : 

Take a teacupful of hot water, and add to it a heaping tablespoon- 
ful of sugar. Drink it down slowly, as hot as possible. In some cases 
it may be necessary to repeat the dose in twenty or thirty minutes ; 
but it is seldom that more than one dose will be needed. 

Another means is to place a mustard poultice on the stomach and 
allow it to remain till considerable redness is produced ; then follow 
this with a hot fomentation of hops or tansy. If this should occur in 
the middle of the night, the patient should apply friction over the 
stomach. This rubbing with the hand, with an active mill, until con- 
siderable redness, with a high degree of heat, is produced. It alone 
will often afford effectual relief. However, the patient subject to these 
attacks should shun all articles of food which excite attacks of this 
disease, and live on plain, easily digested food, spend his time in the 
fresh air and sunlight, and take regular active exercise. 



BILIOUS COLIC OR CRAMP COLIC. 

Many persons are subject to this distressing disease and suffer for 
hours without obtaining relief, when it is the simplest thing to cure 
in the world. 

Take of the fluid extract of idiascora villosa! wild yam, 30 drops 
in about one swallow of hot water, at a dose ; repeat it in 30 minutes 
if necessary. In the meantime take one pint of warm water, add half 
teaspoonlul of salt to it, stir till dissolved, and inject it slowly into the 
bowels with a syringe. Retain it as long as possible. This will evac- 
uate the bowels in less than 30 minutes, and you will get prompt 
relief. 



JAUNDICE. 

The fringe-tree i ehionarithus) — "Old Man's Gray Beard," as it is 
sometimes called. This is a new remedy for this disease, introduced 
to the profession by Prof. B. J. M. Goss. He says it is a .specific for 
jaundice. This article can be procured at the drug store. Call for the 
fluid extract. The dose is a teaspoon ful, in a little sweetened water, 
before ear-h meal. In ten days your jaundice is all gone. 

However, the jaundice may be complicated with other diseases. 
In this case, after your trial, yon can consult your physician. 



54 PEARLS OF WISDOM. 



NEURALGIA. 

It is very important for those who are afflicted with this distressing 
disease to be prepared with a few remedies at hand, and with their 
judicious use they need not suffer very long with this distressing dis- 
ease. 

Eemedy 1. — Take half a teaspoonful of sal amonia and four table- 
spoonfuls of camphor- water ; mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful, and repeat several times at intervals of ten 
minutes, if the pain be not relieved at once, as many neuralgia pa- 
tients can attest. 

Camphor-water may be 'prepared by adding one teaspoonful of 
the strong spirits of camphor to half teacupf ul of water. But one 
remedy will hardly ever cure every case of this disease. 

There is a new remedy discovered, and one that is reported by 
the profession to be of superior efficacy in the cure of neuralgia ; in 
iact it is regarded as an effectual cure in this disease. It is the sul- 
phate of nickel. Have your druggist prepare it for you by rubbing 
one grain of it in a mortar with nine grains of sugar of milk ; tritu- 
rate well. Divide it into two-grain doses. One dose is often sufficient 
to relieve the severest paroxysm of pain. If it should not do so, the 
dose can be repeated every one or two hours until the pain ceases. 
Prof. Hale, of Chicago, has reported many very grave cases of neural- 
gia cured by this remedy. The author has used it in several very old 
cases of neuralgia, and has been utterly astonished to see how prompt 
this remedy relieved that most excruciating malady, especially if it is 
of a periodical character. 

It is useless to treat this disease with liniments. Fomentations 
are much better than all the pain-killers in America. 

The hot air sweat, repeated several times, is the most reliable per- 
manent cure that we know of. (See description of Bath.) 

EARACHE. 

First, the ear should be carefully examined to see if any foreign 
substance is in it, that may provoke the difficulty, the removal of 
which will relieve at once. If nothing of the kind is discovered, we 
may know it to be the result of a cold. Then proceed as follows : 

Heat a brick or stone and wrap it up with a damp cloth or towel, 
and place to the ear, heating and sweating it freely. At the same 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 55» 

time take equal parts of sweet oil and glycerine, teaspoonful each, and 
add 10 drops of laudanum to this ; mix well by warming it over the 
stove. Then take a straw or little stick, from the end of which drop 3 
or 4 drops of this mixture into the ear. This will give you prompt 
relief at once. 



DIPHTHERIA. 

Diphtheria is scarcely more than a modification of scarlet fever. 
The patient first complains of lassitude, aches all over, especially in 
the back and hips, head aches, loss of appetite, rigors and chills, active 
and quick pulse, a light-furred tongue, redness in the back of the 
mouth, enlargement of the glands about the neck, a hot, dry skin, and in 
most cases an exudation formed upon the mucous surfaces of the upper 
air passages. This soon becomes organized into a tough, white mem- 
brane, covering the soft palate and tonsils. These sometimes degen- 
erate into ulcers. The breathing, in consequence of the condition of 
the membranes and air passages, becomes hurried and labored, and 
the patient becomes very restless and uneasy, pulse quick and fre- 
quent, the asphyxia ensuing ends in death. The breath becomes 
fceted. Xo one, after breathing the breath and exudations arising from 
a diphtheric patient, can ever mistake this disease. It generally rages^ 
as an epidemic, and is regarded as contagious. 

Treatment. — The first step in the treatment should be an emetic- 
by a copious draught of milk- warm water with a little salt and ground 
mustard added to the warm water. This should be drank slowly and 
continuedly until the patient vomits. No danger, don't be afraid of 
too much water ; it is harmless. The vomiting will, at the same time,, 
produce free perspiration, which is highly necessary, and should be- 
kept up by the use of the tincture of gelseminum and aconite root, of 
each 20 drops, added to a half-tumbler of water. 

Dose : Teaspoonful every hour. 

The kidneys should be kept in vigorous operation. Flannel 
cloths should be wet with the compound tincture of capsicum,, 
myrrh and lobelia, and should be changed every half hour, and ap- 
plied as hot as the patient can bear it, till the disease is under control,, 
taking care that the throat is well protected from the cold air after the- 
hot flannel cloths are abandoned. The patient should be kept in bedi 
with hot jugs kept to the feet, and a gentle perspiration should be 
kept up. The bowels should be evacuated by injections of warm, 
water. 



56 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

The following prescription the author has found to be a specific 
to kill the ulcers and exudations that gather upon the tonsils and mu- 
cous membranes in the throat : 

Chlorate of potassium 1 drachm. 

Fluid extract wild yam (diascora villosa) . J drachm. 

Hydrate of chloral 1 drachm. 

Tincture of muriate of iron 1 drachm. 

Carbolic acid 5 drops. 

Glycerine. 3 ounces. 

Mix well. 

Yon can get your druggist to put this prescription up for you.. 
Now, with a camel-hair brush you can touch the tonsils and all the- 
exudations in the throat three or four times per day with this medi- 
cine. If the patient swallows a little it will do no harm. If the medi- 
cine appears to be a little too strong, it can be reduced with a little- 
water. You will be astonished to see how soon the ulcers will clean 
off and begin to heal up under this treatment. 

Give the patient plenty of milk punch, (see page 17, how to make- 
it.) Add plenty of brandy, as it is said, by late observers, that good 
whisky or brandy is a prophylactic in diphtheria. Hence you can 
add more than usual to the milk punch. Also give the extract of beef,. 
(see page 14). In convalescing, the patient should have a good sponge- 
bath every day, followed by a brisk rubbing with the bare hands by 
the nurse or some genial friend. 

ERYSIPELAS (ST. ANTHONY'S FIRE.) 

Cause — Exposure to cold ; impaired digestion ; wounds ; particu- 
larly from dissecting and surgical instruments ; badly ventilated and 
over-crowded apartments ; certain condition of the atmosphere and 
a morbid state of the blood from disease ; the habitual use of stimu- 
lants, etc., and consequently debility. The tendency of the disease i& 
to attack different parts of the body simultaneously, which furnishes- 
us with evidence of its origin in a bad condition of the blood. The 
chief existing cause of Erysipelas is a recent wound, and the predis- 
posing cause is inattention to the laws of health, combined, perhaps, 
with a personal or "family tendency to the disease. Erysipelas is known 
by its inflammatory redness of the skin, and its rapid tendency of 
spreading over the body, with considerable puffy swelling,. tenderness,, 
painful burning, tingling and tension. The color varies from a faint- 
red to a dark-red or purplish color, becoming white under pressure 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 0/ 

but returning to its former color on the removal of the pressure. An 
attack is usually ushered in with shivering, languor, headache and 
nausea ; bilious vomiting with the ordinary symptoms of inflamma- 
tory fever, accompanied or followed by inflammation of the parts 
affected. When erysipelas attacks the face, it nearly always com- 
mences at the side of the nose near the angle of the eye. 

Remedies and Treatment. —Applications, externally used, should 
always be put on warm, whatever form the disease may assume ; cold 
applications should never be made, as they interfere with the free 
circulation of the blood, and the nutrition of the part; and they al- 
ways increase rather than diminish the extent of the severity of the 
disease. 

There are many kinds of treatment for this disease, but we will 
endeavor to give you only that which has been adopted by the author, 
which, in every case, has proved to be the most successful and can be 
relied upon. 

A poultice made from the cranberries, stewed and cooked in the 
usual way, and applied blood-warm, is a very valuable remedy for 
outward application. If those are out of season, the next best remedy 
is a decoction of strong tea made from the inner bark of the burr-oak tree, 
and use this to make a bread poultice, and apply it. If this cannot be 
had, the next best is sulphite of soda, half an ounce, to a pint of 
blood- warm rain-water ; dissolve well. A cotton cloth wet Well in 
this and laid over the affected parts, one thickness, and kept wet by 
often changing. However, the cloth should be thoroughly washed in 
clean water before putting it in the soda medicine. 

Again : Also the hamamelis, the witch-hazel, as it is sometimes 
called, used in the same way as the soda solution; but use it full 
strength. 

Also, I have used a gill of good brandy with the juice of 2 lemons 
added. Keep the affected parts well moistened with either of those 
remedies till the inflammation is well subdued. We have always been 
successful with those remedies used in this way. Sometimes we alter- 
nate with two of those remedies, first using one, then the other, until 
the inflammatory action is entirely under control. 

But this disease must be taken in time. It will not do to postpone 
the treatment for one moment, as the disease is a very dangerous one. 

For the internal treatment we use the following prescription : 

Muriate tincture of iron 3 drachms. 

Diluted carbolic acid , \ drachm. 

Fluid ext. wild indigo (baptisiatinctoria) 1 drachm. 
Glycerine sufficient to make a four ounce mixture. 

Dose: Teaspoon ful every two hours. 



58 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

If it is of the facial erysipelas with much fever, it must be con- 
trolled by the mother tincture of belladonna and aconite. They can 
be procured at the homeopathic pharmacy. Give 10 drops of each in 
a halt-tumbler of water ; mix well. 

Dose : Teaspoonful every hour if the fever is high, and the iron 
mixture every three hours, till the fever is controlled ; then stop and 
give the first tincture of iron medicine every two hours. 

Keep the bowels open by injections of salt and water, as described 
in other pages of this book. This treatment will do you good service 
•in this disease. 

SCARLET FEVER. 

Children are far more liable to contract this disease than adults, 
as very few of the latter ever have this disease, even when exposed. 
The interval between the exposure and the attack varies from two to 
five days to three weeks, and patients are known to have the disease 
without exposure, when it is prevailing in the neighborhood. 

General Symptoms. — Scarlet fever usually commences very sud- 
denly, with the ordinary forerunners of fever, chills, and shivering, 
succeeded by hot skin, nausea, sometimes vomiting, with rapid pulse, 
thirst, frontal headache, and sore throat. The last named symptom, 
sore throat, is generally the earliest complained of by the patient. In 
about forty-eight hours after the occurrence of those symptoms, the 
characteristic rash is perceptible, first on the breast, from whence it 
generally extends and spreads all over the body. These eruptions are 
bright-red points or spots, which have been compared, by some writ- 
ers, to look like that of a boiled lobster shell. 

These spots either run together and diffuse themselves uniformly 
-over the skin, or else appear in large, irregular patches on different 
parts of the body. The color of the skin disappears on pressure, but 
returns on its removal. The appearance of the tongue is characteris- 
tic : it is first coated, but the tips and edges are red ; the pimples are 
red and somewhat raised ; afterward the tongue cleans off and looks 
very red and raw. A diffused redness, sometimes of a dark scarlet 
•color, covers the mouth, etc., which all disappears as the febrile symp- 
toms and rash subside. About the fifth day the rash begins to de- 
cline, and entirely disappears about the eighth or ninth day, leaving 
the patient in a very weak condition. The subsequent process of 
peeling of the cuticle is varied in its duration ; it takes place in the 
form of scurf, from the face and trunk, but from the hands and feet 
large flakes are separated, sometimes coming away entire like a glove 
or slipper. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE EOK ALL. 59 

This also is a very dangerous disease, and should have prompt at- 
tention. We shall advise you to send for your physician, as this dis- 
ease is apt to be followed by serious complications, and not attempt 
'.treatment yourself . Bat, as the external treatment is the most essen- 
tial to be attended to, the author will give you that which we always 
•employ, no matter what the complications are, and it is always called 
for in every case, and your family physician, if he is an intelligent one, 
will not object to it, as it will not interfere with his internal treatment. 
As this is a cutaneous disease, the battle-ground to be fought is upon 
the surface ; hence we should advise you by all means to give a warm 
.sponge bath every night, followed by greasing the entire body all over 
with an uncooked fat piece of bacon— in severe cases we always bind 
thin slices of it upon the neck, breast and soles of the feet. We shall 
urge this treatment upon you, as it is always called for and highly 
•effectual. If attended to promptly it will never fail to cure the patient 
with but little other treatment. 



SMALLPOX (Variola). 

This disease is too well known to need a particular description. 
It is always caused or communicated by contagion ; that is, caught 
from others who have it. There are two forms of this disease — the 
Confluent, when the vesicles are so thick that they run together ; and 
the Distinct, when they are separate. Then we have Varioloid, or 
-Smallpox modified by constitutional predisposition — we won't say by 
vaccination, because we don't believe that vaccination ever prevented 
a case of smallpox in this world ; but, on the contray, we do know of 
many cases of confluent smallpox after the patients informed us that 
they had been vaccinated and that it took well. Therefore we would 
advise you never to allow your children to be vaccinated under any 
consideration. Of our own observation of the condition of the human 
iamily, which we have formed after an experience of over twenty 
years in the practice of medicine, we have long since arrived at the 
conclusion that the inhuman practice of vaccination has caused more 
-deaths than the disease of smallpox ever did, to say nothing of the con- 
sumption and scrofulistic wrecks that the sin of vaccination has left all 
over the world. From conscientious scruples, the author has never 
yet vaccinated a single individual, and we don't intend to commence 
now. Our voice shall ever be heard in condemnation of that in- 
human practice. 



*60 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

If the rules and laws of health are observed, which we have en- 
deavored to give you in this little book, you need never be any more 
.afraid of smallpox than you need be of any other disease. However, 
we will proceed to tell you that the treatment in this disease is simple 
and easy to manage. We have a remedy from London which rivals 
.all others for its simplicity, and, coming as it does so highly recom- 
mended, we apprehend that it has accomplished all that is claimed 
ior it : 

Dissolve one ounce of cream of tartar in one pint of boiling water. 
'Of this, when cold, give half a gill for the first dose, to an adult. After 
this is taken, divide the remaining quantity into such doses as, taken 
three times a day, the whole will last three days. 

It is said that this simple remedy has restored thousands of cases, 
and will effectually cure this disease in five or six days, leaving no pit 
marks and no blindness, as is sometimes the case when otherwise 
treated, and always prevents the tedious lingering of convalescence ; 
besides, it can be taken at any time, being preventive as well as cura- 
tive. The use of it is so effectual that, were it popularly employed, it 
would dispense with the unnatural law of vaccination and the very 
mostly staff of vaccinators. 

Another remedy, more in use in some parts of Europe, aud also 
in China, and said to be the most successful ever employed in those 
.countries, and perfectly effectual, is to apply to the chest an ointment 
made by combining tartar-emetic and croton-oil with lard. This ap- 
plication should be made when the fever is at its height and just before 
the eruptions appear. This causes the whole of the eruptions to ap- 
pear on this part of the body, and thus relieves the internal organs and 
the face, on which there will be no pitting. 



WORMS. 

Worm troubles are not so common as generally supposed. Almost 
•every irritation or abnormal condition of a child is attributed by the 
parents or others to the presence of worms, and the little sufferer is 
often made worse by the use of medicines. In no case, however, 
should the child be purged and medicated for worms unless it is quite 
positive that such are present. Rarely do they exist without some 
evidence being shown in the discharges from the bowels ; hence these 
should be carefully examined. Large sums of money are annually 
.spent in this way. Get your druggist to put you up the following 
prescription : 



<tEMS of knowledge for all. 61 

Santonine 4 grains. 

Sugar of milk 10 grains. 

Mix and triturate and divide into six powders. 

Give one of these powders three times per day for three days ; 
then skip two days; then give the other powders in like manner. 
Just pour it from the paper into the child's mouth — the medicine is 
pleasant — after which give the patient a sup of water. The child will 
not object to it. This the next day is to be followed by a little salt and 
water. The child's food may contain an extra quantity of salt for a 
few days, but this excess of salt is to be discontinued when it is rid of 
the worms. This is all the treatment that any child need have for 
worms- 

CHRONIC SORE EYES. 

Chronic sore ej-es, or indeed any kind of acute sore eyes, can be 
cured in the most simple way. We have cured hundreds of cases 
after trying all other means. We know what we are talking about. 
Never allow anybody to drop " eye-water" in your eyes — never. Get 
a clean piece of ice, and after washing a crock or other suitable vessel 
out clean, let the ice melt in the crock in the sun, after which strain, 
if there is sediment in it ; then bottle this ice water in a clean bottle. 
This is the purest water that can be had, as the freezing process takes 
out all inorganic matter. Now, after you have washed your hands and 
face clean with soap, taking care that no soap gets into the eyes, then 
rinse the hands and face with clear, fresh water. Now take half a pint 
of this ice water, poured into a very clean vessel ; add less than half a 
teaspoonful of table salt. After dissolving it, bathe the eyes gently 
with this water, opening the eyes occasionally so that a little of the 
salt-water will get into the eyes. Repeat the process three or four 
times a day. If there is much inflammation, this can be subdued by 
applying a poultice made from scraping a raw potato and laying it 
over the eyes, changing it every two hours. This can be alternated 
with a wet cloth, single thickness, laid over the eyes, wet from the 
ice water and salt mixture. The author has cured hundreds of cases 
in this way after all other means had failed. The grand secret in 
curing sore eyes is to keep your dirty fingers out of your eyes ; also, 
the secretions which are constantly running out of the eyes and down 
the face, which will naturally get upon the fingers and back into the 
eyes if you are not careful and keep your hands washed clean when 
you attempt to treat the eyes. However, if your system is otherwise 
not in a healthy condition, this will have to be attended to. 

6 



62 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



SICK HEADACHE. 

This distressing disease has received its name from the constant 
nausea, or sickness of the stomach, which attends the pain in the 
head. 

Symptoms. — This headache is apt to begin in the morning, on 
waking from a deep sleep, or after sleeping in a closed room, or when 
some irregularity of diet has been indulged in on the several pre- 
ceding days- First, there is an oppressive feeling in the head, which 
gradually increases into a severe pain in the temples or top of the 
head, followed by a deathly sickness at the stomach, with a sense of 
tenderness on pressure at the stomach, and sometimes vomiting. 

Remedy. — Now the quickest way to get rid of this most distressing 
of all sicknes is to empty the stomach at once by an emetic, which can 
be produced by drinking slowly a large quantity of blood-warm water, 
with just enough salt added to be tasted. This will wash out and 
oleanse the stomach at once of all its morbid contents. At the same* 
time you should place your feet in a hot foot-bath ; this will induce 
perspiration, which is highly necessary. Then, as soon as the stom- 
ach becomes a little quiet and calm, you can commence the drinking 
of lemon-water, prepared in the following manner : 

Two gills of tepid water, add one teaspoonful of oil or the clear 
juice of lemon, and drink this quantity every fifteen minutes for one 
hour. Persons of strong constitutional habits may add more of the 
juice of the lemon and water at a dose. We have cured hundreds of 
patients in this simple manner, without a single failure. Often in 
three hours the patients would be as well as ever they were, and could 
go about their work as well as usual. 

More than one-fourth of the female portion of mankind have ex- 
perienced sick headache, in a greater or less degree, ever since salera- 
tus was introduced and used as an ingredient in the making of bread 
and pastries. Therefore, the more nearly it is dispensed with the less 
of this affection there will be, as well as some other maladies. 

However, when there is acidity of the stomach, two teaspoonfuls 
of pulverized willow charcoal dissolved in a half teacupful of soda 
water (baking soda will answer) and taken at one dose will cure this 
form of deranged stomach. There are many other forms of headache 
arising from other causes too numerous to mention in this little book. 
Some, however, are from loss of nerve force, or vital force, and some 
are produced by excess of mental labor or deep sorrow. Those forms 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 63 

of headache are readily cured by the magnetic powers of another per- 
son, commonly called Human Magnetism, with which most persons 
are perfectly familiar. It is done in the following way : First, place 
the feet of the patient into a hot foot bath, then the operator should 
stand behind the patient and, with both hands, should make gentle 
passes from the center of the forehead, and draw the hands gently 
backward over the top of the head, over the temples and down the 
spine for a few minutes, then the operator can change his position to 
the right side of the patient and place the palm of the left hand on the 
back of the neck, and hold it still in that position, while at the same 
time he can make gentle passes from the center of the forehead with 
his right hand down the left side of the face down the left arm to the 
«nd of the fingers, then the next pass down over the right side of the 
face and arm to the end of the fingers of the right side of the patient, 
and alternate the passes in this way, first down one side then down 
the other. In thirty minutes you will be astonished to hear your 
patient declare that his headache has entirely left him. 

Human magnetism is a potent agent as an assistant in the cure of 
all diseases to which the human body is heir, when properly used 
as such. There are many physicians that are curing disease in this 
way, at the present day, without the use of a grain of medicine of any 
kind, and many of them are very successful. The author will give 
you an essay on the Philosophy of Human Magnetism in the closing 
chapter of this little book. 



CHRONIC RHEUMATISM. 

This sometimes follows the acute form of rheumatism, and at 
othertimes it is a separate and constitutional affection, coming on quite 
independently of any previous attack. This disease is generally very 
obstinate, prone to recur, and is often worse at night. In time, the 
affected limbs lose their power of motion, from the membranes and 
joints being often affected, the muscles sometimes become perma- 
nently contracted and lameness is the result. There is but little fever, 
no perspiration and less swelling than in acute rheumatism. This 
form of the disease is often the result of uncured acute forms. It may 
be limited to one part of the body, or extend to several. It may be 
fixed or shifting. The author's extended experience in this disease 
has led us to believe that rheumatism is a disease of the blood. Hence, 
to expect to cure this disease by the use of liniments, as is usually 
supposed, is perfectly absurd. However, we often prescribe them as 



64 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

temporary relief till we can have time for the action of other curative 
remedies. The cause of rheumatism in different individuals is varied. 
In some persons the cause is from an alkaline condition of the fluids 
of the body, but in most individuals it is from an acrid condition. 

Hence, from this fact the treatment must be varied. In some we 
give the bicarbonate of soda, 10 grains at a dose, repeated two or three 
times per day. In others, we give the diluted muriatic acid, half an 
ounce to five ounces of water ; teaspoonful of this in a tumblerful of 
water, and use it as a drink several times a day. These prescriptions 
we give you that you can try each till you know which of the two 
remedies is required in your system. This can be readily told by 
which of the two remedies is relished the best, for if the system re- 
quires the soda it will be desired by the taste more than the acid, and 
in a few hours it will be followed by marked improvement in the 
symptoms, and vice versa. 

At the same time you can be taking the following prescription, 
which you can get your druggist to put up for you : 

Fluid extract of black cohosh (cimicifuga 

racemoea) 1 drachm. 

Fluid ext. poke root (phytolacca decandra) 1 drachm. 

Fluid extract of colchicum 1 drachm. 

Syrup of ginger 4 ounces. 

Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful every three hours. 

For a liniment, for external use, you can use the following : 

Oil of cedar 1 ounce. 

Oil of sassafras 1 ounce. 

Oil of amber 1 ounce. 

Oil of olive 1 ounce. 

Hartshorn 1 ounce. 

Spirits of camphor 1 ounce. 

Spirits of turpentine 1 ounce. 

Tincture of laudanum 1 ounce. 

Tincture of capsicum 1 ounce. 

Alcoholj 1 pint. 

Mix. 

Apply twice a day, and keep the parts well wrapped up with 
flannel. 

This treatment, persisted in, together with the alcoholic sweat 
bath, (as described on page 29, or see cut of both), taken' two or three 
times per week, will cure any ordinary case of rheumatism that we 
have ever seen. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL 65 

However, we will give you other prescriptions highly recom- 
mended by other authors. 

The following is a new remedy that is highly recommended and 
published as an effectual cure for rheumatism : 

•'Take the common garden celery, cut it into small, pieces and 
boil it in water until it is soft. Of this liquor let the patient drink 
freely three or four times per day. To use it as an article of diet pre- 
pare it in the following way : Put new milk with a little flour into a 
sauce-pan with a little nutmeg, and simmer gently, and serve it warm 
with pieces of toast, and this painful ailment w T ill soon yield." 

Such is the declaration of an eminent physician, who has tried it 
again and again with uniform success. 

After this painful disease is broken up it should always be fol- 
lowed with this prescription, as this will act promptly on the kidneys 
and carry the disease out of the system. It is also good in any kidney 
trouble ; and this is our own prescription : 

Fluid extract of Queen of the Meadow 

(eupatorium purpureum) one and a half ozs. 

Fluid extract of pleurisy root (asclepias tu- 

berosa) 1 drachm. 

Fluid extract of blood root (sanguinaria 

canadensis 10 drops. 

Xitrate potass 3 drachms. 

Glycerine sufficient to make a 4-oz. mixture. Mix. 
Dose : Teaspoonful every three hours. 

This will take out of your system all the rheumatic poison that is 
in your blood, after the other remedies are first taken. 

SUNSTROKE. 

Symptoms. — Most cases are preceded by pain in the head ; wand- 
ering of thoughts ; or an inability to think at all ; disturbed vision ; 
irritability of temper ; sense of pain or weight at the pit of the stom- 
ach; inability to breathe with the usual ease and satisfaction; skin 
dry and hot, sometimes cold ; and very soon the patient feels unable 
to command his limbs, and finally he sinks down in a state of more 
or less complete unconsciousness. 

Remedies. — The old method of applying 'cold water to the head is 
bad practice, and should be abandoned. 

A better method is to make warm water applications. If hot 
water cannot be obtained then bathe the head first with tepid water, 
anc, with the hands moistened, rub the neck and whole length of the 



66 PEARLS OP WISDOM, 

spine, then the extremities in a downward direction, in order to draw 
the blood from the brain. As soon as hot water can be obtained, put 
a dry blanket all around the patient's body. Now wring flannels from 
the hot water and apply them quickly to the region of the stomach, 
liver, bowels and spine. Immerse the feet in hot water, or wrap them 
in hot blankets up as far as the body. Change the flannels and 
re-wring them from the hot water every eight or ten minutes for half 
an hour or more. Then remove them as soon as circulation is estab- 
lished, and apply tepid water ; then dry well and rub the body briskly 
with the hands until a glow is produced or perspiration is established - 
As soon as the patient can swallow, give him hot water to drink and 
plenty of it, with occasional bits of crushed ice, or a sip of cold water 
Keep the tepid water on the head all the time changed frequently, 
and all will be well in a few hours. 

Prevention. — During the heated term, as it is called, all use of 
malt, fermented or distilled drinks should be abandoned. Wear a hat 
that will permit the air to pass through, and -have the top lined with 
one thickness of flannel, or keep a damp silk handkerchief in the crown. 
Persons who feel the above symptoms must immediately get into the 
shade and bathe the head in cold water. Everything calculated to 
impair the strength should be avoided. Sleep is a most wonderful 
restorer of strength, and the want of it is often caused by a badly 
assorted late meal of the evening before. Defective ventilation often 
leads to a condition of affairs favorable to the malady under consider- 
ation. Drinking large quantities of ice-cold water, merely because it 
is cold, particularly before and after meals. 



CHOLERA MORBUS. 

Cholera Morbus is a violent purging and vomiting, attended with 
griping in the bowels, with a constant desire to go to stool. It comes- 
on suddenly, and is most common in autumn. There is hardly any 
disease that kills more quickly than this, when proper means are not 
used in due time for removing it. 

Cause. — It is occasioned by a redundancy and putrid acrimony of 
the bile ; food that easily turns sour on the stomach, as butter, fat 
pork, sweet-meats, pies and cakes, apples or melons, cherries, cucum- 
bers, etc. It sometimes proceeds from poisonous substances taken 
into the stomach. It may likewise proceed from a violent passion or 
affection of the mind, such as fear, anger, etc 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 6 7 

Symptoms. — It is generally preceded by heart-burn, sour belch- 
ing from the stomach and flatulency, with pain in the stomach and 
intestines. These are followed by excessive vomiting and purging of 
green, yellow or blackish-colored bile, with distention of the stomachy 
with violent griping pains. There is likewise great thirst, and often 
a fixed pain about the region of the navel. Sometimes a cold, clammy 
sweat. As the disease progresses the pulse sinks so low as to almost 
become imperceptible, the extremities grow cold, the urine is ob- 
structed and there is palpitation of the heart. Violent hiccoughing, 
fainting and convulsions are the signs of approaching death. 

Remedy. — Under the head of Eecipes and Prescriptions you will 
find the author's remedy for this disease, and how to use it. 

However, we will give one of the old prescriptions, one which, we 
have no doubt, is very good. But, first, you must keep the surface of 
your patient warm. Feet and extremities must be wrapped in dry,, 
hot blankets heated by a stove, then hot irons and jugs of hot water 
kept to the feet and limbs ; mustard draft to the stomach till the skin 
is quite red ; and give the following : 

Ground black pepper, one tablespoonful. 

Table salt, one tablespoonful. 

Hot water, half tumblerful. 

Cider vinegar, half tumblerful. Mix. 

Dose : One teaspoonful every few minutes till the whole is taken. 

It is said that this may be relied upon in curing cholera morbus,, 
and also genuine cholera. 

First dose may be vomited up ; if so, repeat the dose. The vom- 
iting will seldom return. 

Stir the medicine well each dose. 

CHOLERA INFANTUM. 

Sugar of milk half ounce. 

Lactated pepsin 35 grains. 

Lactic acid 

Hydrochloric acid 

Aromatic syrup of rhubarb, of each half drachm. 

Tincture of prickly ash berries (xanthoryl- 

lumi 1 drachm. 

Distilled water one and a half ozs. 

Syrup of lemon one and a half ozs.. 

Mix. 

Dose. Half teaspoonful every half hour, or hour, as the case may 
require. If it is too strong for the child, it can be made weak and 
palatable to suit the judgment. 



68 PEAKLS OP WISDOM, 



MEASLES (RUBEOLA). 

This disease is a continued infectious fever, preceded by sneezing,, 
watering of the eyes and nose — a complete catarrh accompanied by a 
crimson rash, and often attended or followed by inflammation of the 
mucous membranes of the organs of respiration: 

Symptoms. — After a period of incubation, varying from ten to 
fourteen days, there is a lassitude, shivering, fever and catarrh. The 
conjunctiva, Schneiderian membrane, mucous membrane of the fauces,, 
larynx, trachea and bronchi, become much affected ; swelling of the 
eyelids ; suffused eyes ; watery, intolerant to light ; sneezing ; dry 
cough ; hoarseness ; difficulty of breathing ; drowsiness, and great 
heat of the skin ; tendency to delirium ; frequent hardened and rapid 
pulse ; tongue white-coated. The eruptions come out at the end of 
the third day ; seldom earlier ; often later. It consists of small cir- 
cular dots or spots, like flea bites, which gladly unite into blotches of 
a dirty-red color, and slightly raised above the skin. The rash first 
appears upon the forehead and face, and then on the neck and breast,, 
and gradually extends all over the body. It begins to fade away in 
the same way — first on the forehead, etc. It produces no marked des- 
pumation, which is the characteristic of scarlet fever. Diarrhea often 
sets in on the rash declining. It is usually salutary. The fever does- 
not subside at once on the disappearance of the eruptions ; nor does 
the severity of the attack depend upon the quantity of the rash. The- 
contagion of measles is strong. Pulmonary complications are very- 
apt to follow this disease — laryngitis ; cancerum aris ; severe otitis ; 
epistaxis ; acute tuberculosis, etc. 

Treatment.— Confine the patient to a warm, dry, airy apartment 
in bed ; enjoin thorough hygenie; have the patient sponged every two- 
or three hours with alkaline warm water or warm vinegar and water,, 
then give the 

Tincture of aconite, 10 to 15 drops, in one-third tumblerful of 
water. Mix. 

Tincture of Belladonna, 10 to 15 drops. 
Water, one-third tumblerful. Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful ; alternate them every hour. 

Occasionally, between times, give warm safron teas, or hot lemon- 
ade, and plenty of it. Keep up, if possible, a gentle sweat. Diet — 
milk, beef tea, butermilk and milk punch (see pages 14 and 17.) 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 



CATARRH. 

This is a terrible disease, with which nearly if not quite three- 
fourths of the human family are afflicted, more or less — from the fact 
few people ever dream that they have anything but a slight cold or a 
slight touch of influenza, until all the mucous membranes and air pas- 
sages are so affected that it has poisoned the blood and assumed a 
chronic form of one of the most distressing and loathsome diseases, 
which seems to resist all treatment and is the most difficult to cure. 
The whole world has been filled with more advertisements of quack 
nostrums, and perhaps more money spent in this way, for the cure of 
Catarrh than perhaps any other one disease. Dear reader, let us tell 
you here that all the money you spend in that way is worse than use- 
less, for you are oftener made far worse than ever benefited, or if you 
are ever benefited in the least it is only temporary. Catarrh is an in- 
flammation of the mucous membranes of some portions of the air pas- 
sages, characterized by sneezing, watery discharges from the nostrils, 
increased secretions from the lachrymal glands, slight head-ache, 
heavy feeling in the head, chilliness, fever, hoarseness, dry cough, sore 
throat. Sometimes it assumes to be a drying up of all the secretions, 
the air passages are all stopped up, and there is a loss of appetite and 
feeling of lassitude. 

Different names are applied to it, as it affects the schneiderian 
membrane — Catarrhal Cephalgia, when it affects the frontal sinus ; 
Bronchitis, when the stress falls upon the trachea and bronchial tubes- 
Catarrh, properly speaking, affects the mucous lining of the nose and 
throat, and is extremely prevalent and intractable. People of a 
.strumous diathesis are most liable to this form of the disease ; hence 
we find the disease of a low chronic type and requiring a specific treat- 
ment. If the catarrhal inflammation has been violent in scrofulistic 
patients, ulceration many times is the result. 

The peculiar influences which originate catarrh, affect, primarily, 
the organic nerves which supply the surface, and through them the 
system generally. Secretions and the circulation in the parts are 
specially deranged ; the chief modifications of the disease from the 
•constitutional actions are disturbed, the extent of surface involved be- 
comes greater and the grade of iritation proportionately increased. 

Treatment. — In acute attacks, an emetic of compound powder of 
lobelia (as described in other parts of this book how to prepare this 
medicine), followed by a hot air bath and foot bath. Tincture of 
■aconite, given as an arterial sedative, acting freely on the secretions, 



70 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

irom ten to fifteen drops to a third of tumblerful of water ; dose, tea- 
spoonful every one or two hours, as the case demands. Hot atomized 
vapors to control the local inflammation. All moist warmth is a power- 
ful restorer in this disease to the arrested circulation and vital action that 
we possess, and the safest therapeutic agent that we have in this dis- 
ease, because it is direct. The warm vapors should be allowed to 
come freely in contact with the inflamed mucous membranes. Various 
agents are used for inhalations with good success. We feel partial to 
the sulphate of hydrastis, or Golden Seal, as it is called by the com- 
mon people ; also, the blood-root, or the permanganate potassa. 
These remedies are all very rapidly absorbed by the mucous mem- 
'branes ; the warm stream softens and relaxes the tissues. There is 
nothing that acts so promptly as the warm atomizers in catarrh. The 
atomizing instruments of the various makes can be had at nearly all 
•the drug-stores. Below we will give you a table of remedies to be 
used and their strength. 

The nasal douche is also an indispensable intrument to be used, 
as it washes out the air passages and keeps them cleansed and pre- 
pared to be followed by the medicine for the atomizers. For the 
douche, various remedies are used in alternation. To a quart of warm 
water (as warm as can be borne) half a teaspoonful of salt, is a very 
excellent remedy. Chlorate of potassa, half a drachm to a quart of 
water, is another. The sulphate of zinc, or diluted carbolic acid, used 
;in various strengths, are very useful. The douche, and how to use it, 
is too well known to take up the time to describe it here. 

The dose in the following table is to be added to an ounce of dis- 
tilled water for the atomizing instrument. There are many remedies 
that are used in this way, but we shall give only those which we have 
.had the best success with in the greatest number of different cases. 
We give these remedies because we do not know the patient to pre- 
scribe for him on the spot, leaving you to use such different ones as 
.seem to give the most relief. To use them all alternately will be 
the best for you : 

Sulphate of hydrastin 5 to 10 grains. 

Sulphate of baptism 10 to 20 

Sulphate of iron 1 to 5 

Sulphate of sanguinarin 5 to 10 

Pulv. borax 5 to 20 

Digitalis \ to 1 

Potassa chlorate 5 to 10 

Potassa bromide 5 to 10 

Potassa iodide 5 to 10 

Potassa permanganate 10 to 20 

Salt 5 to 30 

Carbolic acid 1 to 7 

Bichromate of potassa 5 to 10 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 71 

The best of the above is carbolic acid, which stimulates, deoder- 
izes and promotes cicaterization of the abraded surfaces. During this 
treatment we will give you a prescription of our catarrh snuff; also, a 
prescription as a blood purifier, that is of the most importance in the 
■cure of this disease : 

Fluid extract of the American ivy (ampelopsis quing), 

Fluid extract of yellow parilla (menispermum), of each half an 
ounce. 

Fluid extract wild yam root (dioscorea villo), one drachm. 

Fluid extract mandrake (podophyllum pelt), half a drachm. 

Syrup of stillingia, 

Syrup of dandelion, of each equal quantity, sufficient to make a 
six-ounce mixture. 

Mix. 

Dose, teaspoonful three times per day. 

This is one of the best blood purifiers in catarrhal or scrof ulistic 
conditions that we have ever used, or even in syphilitic diseases. If 
iodide of potasseum is added two or three drachms, it is still better 
in syphilitic diseases. 

We have a catarrh snuff that we consider the best ever in use. 
We will give that under the head of "Kecipes." See Index. 



GONORRHEA. 

This is a term applied to inflamation of the mucous membrane of 
the Urethra, generally beginning at the anterior portion, attended 
with a contagious mucus, or muco-purulent discharge. The cause is a 
specific virus of veneral matter coming in contact with the part. Still, 
leuchorrhea, menstrual discharge, strains or blows may excite a mild 
type of inflammation, which will pass off in a few days. But true 
gonorrhea is due to the action of a specific poison depressing the part. 
It may be a poison of low intensity, or it may be one of great intensity ; 
both forms produce a gonorrhea. 

The symptoms of both grades of the poison are identical — no true 
distinctive mark. Scratch the thigh of the patient and apply a little 
of the puss ; the character of the sore so produced will reveal the type 
of the virus, the grade of the poison. The period of incubation varies 
from twenty-four to forty-eight hours after illicit intercourse, some- 
times longer, varying with the power of vital resistance of the patient. 
An itching desire to urinate frequently, heat, fullness and redness of 



72 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

the orifice, slight glary discharge like the white of an egg, which soon 
becomes muco-purulent, great scalding during micturition, pain in the 
groin, iritability of the bladder, weight and dragging down of the tes- 
ticles, are symptoms. However, these symptoms are liable to numer- 
ous complications, as cordee, painful erections, balanetis, hemorrhage 
irom the urethra, and retention of urine, abcesses in the groin, pros- 
tites etc., etc. 

Treatment. — This is various. If the patient is seen early, during 
the first two days, an effort should be made at once to abate the in- 
flammation. If possible, this should be done by injections into the 
urethra, after each urination, with an injection of sulphate of zinc, 
grains five, to sulphate of morphia, grains two, to one ounce of water. 
This will kill the virus at once in two days. Then follow the first by 
the two following ones : 

Sulphate of hydrastin 4 grains- 
Baking soda 8 " 

Distilled water 3 ounces. 

Mix. 

Inject after each urination, just a few drops, say half a tea- 
spoonful. 

Again : 

Sulphate of hydrastin 2 grains. 

Pulverized borax 8 " 

Distilled water 2 " 

Mix. 

Inject this alternately with the above. If there are painful erec- 
tions (cordee), bathe the parts at once in cold water. If it is a simple 
new case — we mean taken in time — this is all the treatment that is 
required. But in old cases there will have to be internal treatment, 
given at the same time the injections are made locally, of the fol- 
lowing : 

Compound syrup of stillengia 4 ounces. 

Balsam of copaiba half 

Iodide of potassa 20 grains. ♦ 

Fluid extract of gelsenmum half drachm. 

Mix. 

Dose, teaspoonful three times per day. As soon as the discharges 
abate take only twice per day. This you can get your druggist to put 
np for you, and it is good and reliable in such cases. It takes from six 
►days to five or six weeks to cure these cases, according to the condi- 
tion, constitution, habits and life of the individual. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 73 



DIABETES. 



This is a real disease which many parents are wholly ignorant of, 
and therefore many a poor child has been unmercifully whipped to 
break it from the habit of wetting the bed, which is cruel. 

Cause. — Diabetes is an affection of the system dependent upon a 
disordered state of the digestive organs, with a defect of the assimula- 
tive functions, which is characterized by a condition of extreme nerv- 
ous prostration, a morbid appetite for food and drink, and the secre- 
tion of a large quantity of glucose, or grape sugar. It is, properly 
speaking, a saccharine diathesis, for not only is the starch of the food 
converted into sugar, but, owing to the morbid condition of the liver, 
or the nerves which supply it, the liver only secretes, per se, saccharine 
elements. 

The primary cause of diabetes consists, then, in a morbid condition 
of the digestive and assimulative organs, which favor the promotion 
of sugar from the starchy or farinaceous substances introduced into 
the alimentary canal, and its absorption into the blood and urine. 
But we cannot enter into the details of the subject in this little book. 

Treatment. — A regular course of diatetics is of the first impor- 
tance. A rigid and careful avoidance of all saccharine or starchy arti- 
cles of food must be observed, and a liberal, nutricious diet must be 
adopted, consisting of beef, mutton, venison, fowls, game, fish, etc. If 
the patient can afford it, a sea voyage ; if not, a salt-water sponge bath 
every day, with a brisk and vigorous rubbing down with the hands. 
Little bits of ice, to allay the intense, craving thirst for drink, should 
be taken. Buttermilk is good for a drink. [Right here we wish to say, 
before we forget it, that in all disorders, no matter what, if the stomach 
will tolerate it, buttermilk is called for as a drink. It will allay thirst 
as well as water ; besides there is a lactic acid in the buttermilk 
which is good for the stomach ; therefore, besides allaying thirst, it is 
nutricious diet. The author has always prescribed buttermilk in near- 
ly all acute as well as chronic diseases with the most happy and grat- 
ifying results.] The body should be well protected with flannels; 
plenty of exercise in the open air, but never to fatigue. Tonics and 
alteratives are the medicines in this disease. The best medicine to 
give is the diluted nitro-muriatic acid, half an ounce to one ounce of 
glycerine, teaspoonful to a tumbler of water to be used as a drink. 

Tincture of nux vomica, four drops ; diluted phosphoric acid, eight 
drops, to half a tumbler of water ; dose, teaspoonful every hour for 
several days, making fresh every day. 

7 



/4 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

Our remedies should all be directed to the head and nervous sys- 
tem, rather than the stomach. 

For immediate control of the spasm of the sphincter muscles 
of the bladder in children -who are wetting the bed every night, 
we will give you several remedies in this disease, as one remedy 
will not cure every case on account of the peculiar condition of the 
patient. 

You can get at your druggist's Squibb's etherial tincture of ergot ; 
you can give it in from five to ten drop doses, three or four times per 
day, in a little water. This is very excellent in some cases. 

Tincture of iodine, in one-drop doses, three or four times per day. 

Tincture of belladonna, from three to five drops doses, on going 
to bed. 

Tincture of gelseminum, from eight to ten drops, on going to bed. 

The two last remedies are to be given only on going to bed. One 
dose per day is all that is required of these two remedies. 



ASTHMA. 

Asthma is a nervous disease, whose phenomena depend upon a 
tonic contraction of the circular musclar fibres of the bronchial tubes. 
Paroxysms induced by direct or reflex mechanism, that is to say, the 
stimulus to contraction may be central in the medulla oblongata, or it 
may be in the pulmonary or gastric portion of the pneumogastric, or 
in some other part of the nervous system. Asthma always has, at the 
root of it, some central nervous irritation, or some periferal source of 
it ; may be some latent miasma, skin disease, or some organic affec- 
tion of the chest ; while other causes are merely exciting causes, as 
moist easterly winds. Atmospheric electricity is the inhalation of ir- 
ritating substances, as the aroma of new mown hay, or malaria, 
damps, variable climate, incompatibility of the individual to. the loca- 
tion ; or soil ; or country ; where he lives, etc. 

Symptoms. — A fit of asthma is usually preceded either by head- 
ache or sleepiness, or various digestive or other diseases, as lassitude, 
pain in the head, back or limbs, loss af appetite, dry, hacking cough, 
depression of spirits. The attack is usually ushered in suddenly dur- 
ing the night, with a sensation of suffocation or constriction about the 
chest, urgent, distressing dispncea, aggravated by the slightest move- 
ment. Inspirations short and strong, while the expirations are long, 
labored and loud-wheezing. Great and rapid movements of the nos- 
trils, countenance livid and anxious, indicative of great distress and 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 75 

anxiety, inclined to retain the erect posture, often an intense struggle 
for breath. On auscultation no respiratory murmer is audible, but vi- 
brating murmer loud and wheezing, or shrill and whistling, pulse 
email and feeble, eyes staring, and anxious countenance ; temperature 
of surface falls to 82 deg. Fahr. ; but after a while the labor and fa- 
tigue causes the skin to pour out a most abundant perspiration, and 
after a period comes relief. At last cough a little with expectoration 
of little ropy, stringy pellets of mucous and vomits. Paroxysm ceases 
and the patient falls asleep. During the intervals of attacks the pa- 
tient usually enjoys good health. It is a frightful sight to any one who 
never witnessed a person with a spasm of asthma ; but it is not a dan- 
gerous disease, by any means, for all it is a most distressing one. 

There have been many remedies introduced which have, in many 
•cases, afforded temporary relief, such as the common brown paper 
soaked in a solution of saltpetre, then dried, after which burn it in a 
tight room, that the patient may inhale the smoke. Also, drying 
the leaves of the Jamestown weed (stramonium) and smoking them 
in a pipe or paper. But then they are only temporary relief. 

Treatment. — When the spasm is on give the patient a teaspoon- 
ful of the compound tincture of lobelia every five minutes until re- 
lieved, followed with a half drachm dose of bromide potassium. This 
will seldom fail to relieve the bronchial spasm ; but the final cure of 
asthma lies in the constitutional treatment in the intervals of the at- 
tack, by the use of nutritious diets. The alcohol vapor bath three or 
iour times per week, followed by brisk friction with the hands, and 
regular hygiennic habits ; food easily digested ; the dyspeptic condition 
of the stomach must be got rid of, and all the internal organs put in 
good running order to get rid of this harrassing disease ; and the hot 
air bath will do it if properly administered. The cause must, in all 
cases, be got rid of, or the patient placed in a location compatible with 
his idiosyncracies and the closest attention paid to the general health. 

Excellent results will be followed by such a prescription as the 
following : 

Fluid extract verba santa (new remedy)... half ounce. 
Fluid ext. grindelia robusta (new remedy), half ounce. 

Fluid ext. rosinweed (silphum) half ounce. 

Fluid ext. black cohosh (cimcifuga racem.) 1 drachm. 

Tincture of lobelia seed half drachm. 

Bromide potassa half ounce. 

Hydrocyanic acid, diluted 25 drops. 

Extract of malt three anda half ozs. 

Distilled water sufficient to make a 6-oz. mixture. Mix. 



76 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

Dose : One teaspoonful one hour after each meal, and one on going 
to bed, continued for over one week or more. 

This prescription, together with the other constitutional treat- 
ment that we have given, will effectually cure this disease. 



PNEUMONIA. 

Pneumonia is an inflammation of the substance of the lungs, and 
it is predisposed to by intense nervous depressian, debility, or exhaus- 
tion. The existing cause is usually the depressing effect of cold" damp, 
exposure, vicissitudes of heat and cold, or inhalations of irritants, or 
mechanical violence. The usual mode of attack is depression of the 
large aerating surface of the lower lobe of the right lung. It may re- 
main there or proceed over to the left lung, and then proceed upward. 
However, in all conditions, the lungs become engorged from below 
upwards. Pneumonia may be met with in the following forms : acute, 
sudden in its character. If the patient has a strong vital force it may 
resist the local irritation, or it may come down of itself from a slight 
irritation. In other patients, whose constitutions are feebler, it may 
involve both pleura and lung, and both be implicated at the same 
time. Then, again, it may be complicated with typhoid. 

But our book is too small to go any farther in detail here. There- 
fore, we will say that we will have no room to describe Pleurisy, only 
to say that our treatment would be much the same in both diseases. 

Treatment. — As soon as the disease is recognized, in either case, 
the patient should get an alcohol bath and then be put to bed. The 
temperature of the apartment should be kept between 65 and 70 degs. 
Active cupping should be resorted to over the consolidated lung, then 
followed by flaxseed poultices. The action of warmth and moisture 
over the affected tissues tends directly to increase its vitality, as soon 
shown by diminished dispncea, the breath being drawn raore easily. 
Even intercostal movement can be detected. The poultice should be 
made of linseed meal, because it keeps moist the longest ; but it should 
be fully half an inch thick, spread on flannel sufficiently large to cov- 
er the affected part. The poultice should be changed every two hours, 
as the heat of the body will soon dry it. Then, as the symptoms 
change for the better you can change the poultice for that of com- 
presses. Take a towel, wring it out dry from a little salt and tepid 
water, and apply to the chest. Change it often. Lay a dry towel over 
the wet one. That will prevent the underclothes from getting damp 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL 77 

Remember, you must keep the feet hot and moist by sponging them 
often with water as hot as can be borne, and give the following pre- 
scripl iternal treatment: 

Fluid extract of pleurisy root (asclepias 

tuberosa) .... half drachm. 

Fluid ext. stone root (colling half drachm. 

Fluid ext.. sweet bugle weed (lycopus vir- 

ginicus half clrachni. 

ter three and a half ozs. 

Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful every one or two hours. 

--ere is much predetermination of blood to the head, give 

Tincture of belladonna, 10 to 15 drops. 
In half tumbler of water. 

Feaspoonful every hour, alternated with the above medi- 
3sh every day. 
da treatment followed out, in a very vs you will be aston- 

lo see how your patient will rally out of this dreaded disease. 
Pleurisy can be treated in the same way with success. 
How different this treatment from that of the old way, which was 
always leeding the patient, followed by mustard drafts, 

breast, thi] ._„ more fuel to the ah 

consul animation and heat in the lungs. For their internal 

a ent was veratum, sweet spirits of nitre, calomel and jalap, car- 
bonate of amonium, the result of which was generally followed by a 
funeral in the family. The attending physician was always 
charged with being very attentive during the sickness, and had the 
. te patient very skillfully. 



GRAVEL. 

avel may be defined to be the discharge of a gritty powder or 

sand, or of small calculi deposits passed off with the urine, occa- 

i pain and irritatian of the kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra. 

nt in the uric, phosphatic and oxalic acid diatheses of 

the individual. The most common of the three forms is the uric acid 

•er cent of all the cases. All ages and both sexes are 

- to be afflicted with this disease. 

Tfie Cause. — Gravel is caused by a false a m of the solids 

and fluids of the body, unhealthy digestive organs, confined to the 



78 PEARLS OP WISDOM, 

continued use of soft water or exclusive lime water for both cooking 
and drinking purposes- Of this, however, the author's opinion is 
formed from a very extended experience and observation in this dis- 
ease. In cities where the people cook and drink exclusively cistern 
water, there is where we have found the most kidney and bladder 
diseases. We do not believe that anybody should be confined to live 
exclusively upon either soft or hard water for cooking or drinking pur- 
poses, but for health they should use both ; but, if we should be com- 
pelled to choose one or the other for an exclusive use, we should 
choose the lime water rather than the usual cistern water ; in fact no 
cistern water is fit to use exclusively for drinking and cooking pur- 
poses, unless the cistern has a good filter attached, and there are so 
few filters that are used that are fit for anything, so far as to filter any 
of the organic matter out of the water, especially the usual rains that 
fall in summer, which the people are most generally too apt to catch 
and save. The falling rains of summer are hardly fit for drinking pur- 
poses, as the air is always more or less filled with the carbonicious 
and malarious poisons that arise from the earth's surface and fill the 
upper currents of air with its deadly poisons, and as water is one of 
our best known elements for the absorption of poisons, how can the 
rain which falls through this atmosphere, help but be filled, more or 
less, with this poison, which finds its way into our cisterns for drink- 
ing purposes, to say nothing of the dirty roofs of our houses, and the 
filthy gutters and water pipes which are always in every case washed 
off and out clean from a dashing rain. Now, all of this dirt and poi- 
son filth has taken up its quarters in the cistern, to be used by the 
human body. Now this is all wrong, for nobody can have permanent 
health living upon this kind of water. 

We will give you our plan for a filter, which we have tested to our 
perfect satisfaction, and know it to be the best filter that we have ever 
known. It is cheap and durable, and never gets out of order, and we 
will not charge you anything extra for our patent filter. 

When you build your cistern, build it just a little larger than the 
usual ske, especially at the top. Now build you an eight-inch wall 
right through the center, from picked brick, pretty hard burnt but not 
too hard, not too soft and shelly, but with nice, square, sharp edges. 
Lay this eight-inch center wall clear up to the top of your cistern ; but 
it must be laid in mortar made from cement, the same as you use to 
plaster your cistern with. Strike the joints well ; be sure that there 
are no air holes through between the brick and mortar. Join the cen- 
ter wall to the wall on each side of your cistern. Now, when you 
plaster it, leave the center wall unplastered, and when your cistern is 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOE ALL. <V 

done let the water pipes in on one side of the wall, and put your 
pump in on the other side of the wall. Now, as your water runs in. 
the cistern from the rains the water will filter through this eight-inch, 
brick wall, and you will have the purest water that you ever drank, 
and it will always be pure and free from any kind of organic matter. 
If you will be choice in the winter and spring to fill your cistern al- 
ways after a heavy rain, when the roof has had sufficient time to be 
washed off, you will always have nice, pure, clear water. All cisterns 
should be cleaned out once per year. This filter will never get out of 
order, and will last just as long as your cistern will last, and be just 
about as cheap. This filter can be added to old cisterns, if you will 
alter the cistern at the top and make it a little bigger, so that any one 
can put down a ladder, and a man go down to clean it out. 

But, bless us ! we did not intend to write an article upon cisterns- 
and rain water ; but here we have switched entirely off the track and 
told you how to build cisterns. But for all, it is as good a chapter as- 
there is in the book, so we know the reader will excuse us, while we 
will try to find our way back to where we started from. 

Let's see ; we believe we were trying to w r rite an article upon the 
disease of Gravel, weren't we ? 

But we will surely have to go back and read over what we said to 
see where we left off, so that we can pick up the dropped thread, tie a 
knot and go on. 

Gravel, then, as we have said, is caused by an improper assimila- 
tion of the fluids of the body, which soon form into sand-like deposits.. 
When the sediments are excessive they are called, chemically speak- 
ing, urates ; lithates ; v phosphates, oxalates, according to the dia- 
thesis of the patient. When those assimilations are excessive it 
causes a serious disease, and if there is anything in the bladder like a 
mucous shred it acts as a nucleus for these sand-like deposits, and it 
forms what is known as stone in the bladder. 

Symptoms. — In Gravel, the patient has a dull, aching pain in the 
back, preceded by and attended with frequent desire to urinate, fol- 
lowed by sharp, cutting, burning pains in the urethra and neck of the 
bladder, or in the course of the ureters. These pains extend along 
down the thigh and into the calves of the legs. The sudden stoppage of 
the stream of the urine is caused by the stone rolling down into the 
neck of the bladder, and the patient has a constant desire to be pull- 
ing at the end of the penis to relieve the pain, which is always sug- 
gestive of the presence of stone in the bladder. 

The chemical nature of the gravel should be ascertained, and r 
when this is done, the chemical opposites in the medicines should be- 



80 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

administered, as no treatment will avail if not in chemical opposition.. 
But if the stone has been formed and is of any size, there is no treat- 
ment effectual. A surgeon should be consulted, who will remove it 
by an operation called lithotrity, or another term, lithontripsy. 

The solvent treatment consists, of course, of such agents as are 
chemically opposed to the nature of the calcula deposits. By such a 
course of medication our success has been the most gratifying. 

As soon as the patient is aware, or has the least suspicion that lie 
has the gravel, he should at once see to it that he gets his stomach , as 
well as all the internal organs, in good running order. A strict nutri- 
tious diet should be adhered to. Sponging and bathing is in order and 
loudly called for. All stimulating drinks should be avoided, and 
adopt the mucilaginous drinks. 

Then the following prescription is a specific to neutralize and get 
rid of the sand-like deposits. The best remedy that we have ever used 
for this disease is a tincture made from the inner bark from the root 
of the sweet apple tree. But the medical properties are only in the 
root late in the fall and early in the spring, before the sap rises up hi 
the tree, and after it has gone clown into the roots. You can make it 
yourself in the following way, as it seldom ever can be found in the 
market in the drug stores. 

Take of the bark of the root, eight ounces by weight. 

Put this into a bottle. 

Add alcohol 76° per cent, one pint by measure. 

Let it stand from fifteen to twenty days, shaking it occasionally 
that the strength shall be well drawn out. 

Dose of this medicine : One teaspoonful three or four times per 
day. It can be taken in a little sweetened water. 

The next best remedy is the 

Fluid extract of hydrangea. 

Dose : Fifteen to twenty drops every three hours. 

Ten grains of borax dissolved in water, should be drank every 
day during the treatment. 



SPERMATORRHEA. 

Under this title it will be necessary to consider Masturbation, or 
Self- Abuse ; Semenal Weakness, Sexual Exhaustion, Sterility, etc. 

Masturbation, — Self- Abuse is a name given to a pernicious and de- 
structive habit — a discharge of the seminal fluids by the stimulus of 

-an act which is revolting to humani- 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOE ALL. 81 

ty and destructive to every feeling and faculty of vigorous manhood. 
The great and good in all ages and nations of the world, as well as the 
highest medical authority, condemn this pernicious, this baneful prac- 
tice, as fatal to the vitality of the person, entailing on himself a lower 
type of manhood, and even transmitting to his posterity a structure so 
degrading that its very constituents are disease, weakness and death. 
In a very large percentage of nocturnal emissions and enlarged pros- 
tate glands, masturbation has been the cause. Nationally speaking, 
It exercises a disastrous effect, producing imbecility, cerebral diseases 
of every form, placing the persons lower in the scale of being. But 
aside from all this general type of degeneration, it creates certain local 
diseases, such as inflammation of the prostrate glands. This is pro- 
duced by an unnatural act, being an irritant by the retention of semen 
in the ejaculatory ducts, producing inflammation. This invariably 
takes place when the semen is retained — not thoroughly evacuated- 
Another very common result is the devitalization of the veins of the 
spermatic cord and testicles, producing a varicose condition of the 
veins — varicocele and circocele. 

Atrophy, or a wasting away of the testicles, is also a very common 
sequel. This condition may take place at any period. If the practice 
has been commenced in eariv life, they often do not attain their natural 
size, and even lose the power of secreting semen, and thus the man- 
hood is gone forever. But this effect is not on the testicle alone, 
but upon the whole body, which is bent downward and dwarfed and 
Tobbed of its proper proportions — a perfect arrest of any further de- 
velopment. But this subject alone is inexhaustible, and we cannot go 
any farther into the details only to say that the critical period of life 
in this disease is about the time of the approach of puberty, which va- 
ries from the age of fifteen to eighteen, when the very rapid growth of 
the generative organs, the increased power and frequent erections 
cause the act, which is sure to occasion the deepest remorse. It is the 
attention and deliberate condition of these facts that explain to us 
how the habitual exercise of the genital organs, either by coition or by 
masturbation, may so far get control of the will of the individual. It 
is about this time in life when parents, through an ignorant education 
combined with a false modesty, have failed to do their duty by not 
taking the precaution to make confidantes of their boys and girls by 
talking to them and explaining to their young minds the dangerous 
period that their lives have about approached and are approaching, 
by warning them against such a pernicious and loathsome habit. 
Parents, we warn you to see to it that you do your duty and be ever 
vigilant and on the watch, before your promising sons are ruined and 



82 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

sent to the mad-house. Do you not know that, according to the sta- 
tistical evidence which w T e have, three-fourths of the inmates of our 
insane asylums are the victims of masturbation ? But we cannot fol- 
low this subject longer; our book is too small. But we wish we had 
a voice sufficiently loud that the whole world might hear our warning 
to you upon this subject. 

Remedy. — First, the habit must at once and forever be aban- 
doned. Without this there is no available remedy. There must be a 
strict attention paid to the general health, and good, nutritious diet — 
beef, mutton, fish, eggs, fruit and vegetables. Next, the mind must be 
under complete moral control. You must not think about such 
things. Get interested in some interesting book, and dwell upon the 
subject matter read. Seek the society of intelligent, cultured men and 
women. You must become interested at once in the stern realities 
and practicabilities of life. Then, and not till then, is there any hope 
for you. 

Through the day you can take the following prescription : 

Fluid extract of prickly ash berries (Xanthoxylum), one drachm ; 

Fluid extract of gelsemium, half drachm ; 

Fluid extract of hydrastis canad., twenty drops ; 

Tincture of bayberry bark, half drachm ; 

Tincture of nux vomica, half drachm ; 

Glycerine, four ounces. 

Mix. 

Teaspoonful every three hours during the day time. 
If there are nightly dreams, followed by emissions of semen, then 
the following prescription is for that : 

Bromide of potassa, three and one-half drachms ; 
Hydrate of chloral, three drachms ; 
Lemon syrup, three and one-half ounces. 
Mix. 

Dose, teasponful on going to bed only ; and remember, don't take 
any more than this amount unless you find that you do not sleep 
sound ; in that case you can take one and one-half teaspoonfuls at one 
dose, and take it on going to bed at night only. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 83 



SUPPRESSION OF MONTHLY PERIODS (Amenorrhea). 

This may occur in three forms : First, where the evacuations have 
never occurred, or retention of menses ; second, where there has never 
been any secretion ; third, suppression. 

There are cases where the secretions have been perfect, but the 
discharge prevented by occlusion of the vagina, or imperfect hymen, 
ere. Again, the secretions may never have occurred, owing to a con- 
genital deficiency of the ovaries. And there are other cases where 
the uterus and ovaries are sound, yet no flow from the vagina. The 
most common variety, however, are when it may cease by degrees, as 
in consumptive and scrofulous patients ; or it may occur as the result 
Of a cold, which induces inflammation of the uterus and ovaries. It 
may also be induced by excessive venery, or wet feet, ice-water, in- 
sufficient clothing, bathing, fear, grief, anxiety, fails, copulation during 
flow, or pregnancy. 

Symptoms. — Weight, pain in the head, loins and uterine regions ; 
hot skin, appoplexy, in some cases various hemorrhages, palpitation 
of the heart, chilliness, loss of appetite, etc. 

Treatment. — Give hot alcohol bath, hot foot baths, if the sup- 
pression be recent, and apply hot mustard poultices to the breast. In- 
ternally, give tansy or wintergreen teas. Keep the patient warm ; 
get her into a sweat ; allow but little gentle exercise ; give a hot sitz 
bath, so as to concentrate the blood in the pelvis, putting the feet in a 
hot bath at the same time. Keep up this treatment for a few days, 
and all will be well. 



DYSMENORRHEA (Painful Menstruation). 

Painful menstruation occcurs mostly in single women, and many 
times it may be pregnancy. 

Symptoms. — Restlessness, flushed face, pain in the head, pain in 
back, pain in the region of the pelvis, sometimes so severe that it will 
cause fainting; after a while the pain will become more bearing down, 
accompanied by shreddy mucous discharges, then accompanied by 
clots of blood. In young and plethoric persons there is but little effect 
upon the general health, but in very nervous persons'the health soon 
fails, and they not unfrequently run into consumption. 

Remedies. — When it is thought to be from persistent painful sup- 
pression, it is generally pretty certain that it is from an inflammation 



84 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

of the womb. Then the injections are called for, and the local treat- 
ment as described on page 48, under the article on " Cause and Cure 
<of Female Weakness." 

The use of mild cathartics is necessary to keep the bowels open 
and free, and the patient should take the following prescription : 

Tincture of gelsemium, 

Tincture of black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa), 
■ Tincture of wild yam (Dioscorea villo), of each half a dram ; * 
Glycerine, four ounces. 
Mix. 

Dose, teaspoonful every three hours. 



MENORRHAGIA. 

This form of disease is characterized by profuse, prolonged or too 
freequent menstruation, especially if it is accompanied by head-ache, 
hot skin, full pulse, weight in the back, hips, loins, and pelvis ; the 
patient becomes bloodless and weak. 

Cause. — It is occasioned by confinement to hot rooms, abortion , 
leucorrhea (whites), also excessive venery, long walks, and constipa- 
tion. Exhaustion follows the least exercise. 

Treatment. — Locally, injections of a decoction of the plantain 
leaf, alternated with golden seal (Hydrastis canad.), or a little salt and 
water; if the hemorrhage is very active, then a strong decoction 
of tannic acid, or, what is still better, a decoction from the"bark of the 
;Ted oak. 

Internally, give the following : 

Fluid extract of chamomilla, 

Fluid extract of collinsonia, 

Fluid extract of ergot, 

Fluid extract of sweet bugle weed (lycopus), of each half a drachm ; 

Glycerine, four ounces. 

Mix. 

Dose, teaspoonful every two or three hours, as the case requires, 
and as improvement is noted prolong the intervals, and when the flow 
entirely ceases stop the medicine till the next period comes around, 



* These tinetures can always be had at the Homeopathic pharmacies of a better 
quality than at any other kind of a drug store ; but you must always call for the 
mother tincture. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 85 

while the local treatment should be kept up every day till the dis- 
eased condition is healed, after which the patient should have a tonic 
treatment to build up the lost physical forces, when the following is 
called for : 

Tonic Prescription. — Fluid extract of the tag alder (Alnus rubra), 

Fluid extract of wahoo (Euonyrnus at), 

Fluid extract columbo root (Frasera car), of each half an ounce ; 

Fluid extract of hydrastis, half a drachm ; 

Carbonate of iron, 

Hypophosphate of lime, of each one drachm ; 

Table salt, half a drachm ; 

Good sherry wine (or California angelica wine) and syrup of 
wild cherry, equal parts, sufficient to make an eight- 
ounce mixture. 

Mix. 

Dose, teaspoonful one hour after each meal, and one on going to 
bed. * We consider this one of the best general tonic medicines that 
ever was given to the world in such cases. You can get your druggist 
to put it up for you. 

CESSATION OF THE MENSES. 

This condition usually occurs between the ages of forty and fif- 
ty — sometimes later, sometimes earlier. The courses become irregu- 
lar, staying away two or three months, then commencing with a per- 
fect flood ; then again coming scantily, just a show, with sometimes 
nausea and vomiting, bloating of the abdomen, tenderness of the 
breasts, etc., are the common symptoms. Pregnancy may sometimes 
be suspecced, for there is frequent uterine pain, dragging-down pains 
in the back and loins, violent head-ache, sometimes vertigo, a coated 
tongue and disordered stomach. 

Treatment. — If the symptoms are light and this change is ex- 
pected, keep the body in a good condition by strict attention to diet 
and hygiene, bathing and rubbing the body well three or four times a 
week. If the pains are in the lower part of the bowels then occasion- 
ally wear a pack saturated with equal parts of whisk}' and water with 
a little salt added. Internal treatment : Take eight or ten drops of 
the fluid extract of blach cohosh three or four times a day. If the 
patient is weak and debilitated in general health, then the tonic med- 
icine that we gave you in the other chapter is called for ; in fact every 
indication must be met in the constitutional symptoms. 



86 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



ST. VITUS' DANCE (CHOREA). 

This very singular disease is recognized by a want of control of 
the muscular nerves over the motor, in the waking state, which gives 
rise to irregular, tremulous and very ludicrous movements of the vol- 
untary muscles. It occurs, for the most part, in girls of feeble consti- 
tutions. About the age of puberty is when it is oftener met with,, 
in girls of irritable, nervous temperament, between the ages of six and 
fifteen. It is met with very rarely in boys. 

Cause. — It is;, from the want of harmony between the gray and 
white matter of the chord, or it may occur from anemia, dyspepsia,, 
skin eruptions, retarded catamenia, constipation or cold, insufficient 
food, excessive loss of blood, pregnancy, disease of the bladder or 
uterus, or mental emotion, etc. 

Treatment. — This, of all other diseases, has baffled the skill of 
more physicians than any other, and yet it is more easy and sim- 
ple for us to cure than any other disease, because we have, in nearly 
all cases, found the symptoms of nearly a complete congestion of the 
entire capillary system. Hence, we have directed our treatment al- 
most entirely to the surface of the body ; first sponging the body with 
tepid water, followed by anointing the body with goose grease or a 
liniment lotion, which we intend to give under the head of Keceipts- 
and Prescriptions. Look for it. After several days of this treatment 
give alcohol sweat baths two or three times per week, with good 
rubbing and friction with the hand, of the entire body, with occasional 
anointing, as human magnetism from a gentle, loving hand, is the 
all important potent remedy in this disease. The bowels must be kept 
open, and strict attention paid to the diet of good, nutritious food, is^ 
all that is necessary in the treatment of this disease. 



CATALEPSY. 

This is a periodical disease, in which the attack is marked by un- 
consciousness and fixed rigidity of all or many of the voluntary mus - 
cles, so that patients remain in the position they had taken when the 
attack began. The attack generally lasts but a few minutes. This dis- 
ease attacks mostly the female sex. Exceptional cases are on record, 
where the attack has lasted several days. At the end of the attack 
the patient awakens as from a deep sleep, and will take up the sen- 
tence in which he was interrupted by the attack, no matter how long. 
it may have lasted. This disease is of very rare occurrence. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 87 

Treatment. — This must be alterative ; tonic and hygienic, and 
be governed by the general principles which govern us in the forms of 
diseases with which it is associated. Usually we have had the most 
satisfactory results from the alternate use of hot and cold water poured 
on the back of the neck from a height. Internally give phosphorus, 
quinine and iron in alternation. Doses of three drops of the tincture 
of the calabar bean every two hours. 



EPiLEPSY. 

This is a chronic disease, and consists of periodical convulsions, 
unconsciousness and loss of feeling during the attack. This dreadful 
disease is the most prevalent of all diseases, as statistics prove that one 
person out of every thousand is a subject of epilepsy. 

Causes. — Heriditary transmission, intemperance, venereal ex- 
cesses, self-abuse, blows on the head, fright, and the effects of heat 
during hot weather. 

Symptoms. — Warning of the attack occurs, in a minority of cases, 
by headaches, dizziness, terror, spectral illusions, or the epileptic aura. 
This is a sensation like a current of air, and begins either in a hand or 
foot, or in the spine, proceeding towards the brain. In the largest ma- 
jority of cases the attack commences with a violent scream, the patient 
falls down unconscious and convulsions occur. Foaming at the mouth, 
grinding of the teeth and biting of the teeth, are common ; the face 
becomes bluish-purple, and there are erratic, involuntary muscular 
movements- Breathing is generally very labored. The duration of 
the rlts is from five to ten minutes. The interval between the at- 
tacks may be from several months to a few hours. We have had 
patients who had several attacks daily. 

Treatment. — During the intervals and to cure, we should im- 
prove the general health with good diet, exercise in the open air, 
by daily bathing, occasionally vapor bath, etc. ; and, above all things, 
we should endeavor to suspend the explosion of the nervous sys- 
tem with large doses of bromide of potassium in doses from ten 
grains to a drachm two or three times daily, and continue till we 
effect cure by other means. We have had great success in curing 
many cases of this kind with the bromide of calcium, and the bro- 
mide of ammonium, and the bromide of lithium, in from one grain 
doses up to twenty grains, three or. four times per day. Sometimes 
we use one and sometimes the other. The bromide of calcium is 
an excellent remedy in the convulsions of little children during den- 



8 8 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

tition and diarrhea or vomiting. It takes the place of all other seda- 
tives in doses from one to twenty grains. One grain for every year up 
to twenty years, is the standard dose. 

But in this disease we have had some happy results from the fol- 
lowing prescription : 

Camphor water, four ounces. 
Bromide of potassium, one ounce. 
Bromide of ammonia, one-half ounce. 
Potass, bicarbonate, two drachms. 
Tincture of calabar bean, one-half ounce. 
Tincture of belladonna, thirty drops- 
Mix. 

Dose : A teaspoonful every three hours. 

If the disease is clearly connected with other causes, which only 
give rise to reflex irritation, or of syphilitic, or mercurial, or any other 
morbid condition of the blood, our treatment is always attended 
with decided success. But if the disease depends upon exostosis on 
the interior of the skull, or upon some organic disease, we can da 
but little — only to mitigate its severity. 



PARALYSIS. 

This disease consists of a partial or total loss of voluntary motion 
or sensation ; in some cases both are destroyed. It usually occurs 
without coma, or loss of consciousness or derangement of the intel- 
lectual powers, unless it be, perhaps, merely a derangement of mem- 
ory. It may be called general when it affects the whole body, and 
sometimes it is followed by apoplexy. It appears generally suddenly ,. 
without any warning by previous symptoms. Most generally only 
one side of the body is attacked, and the patient loses the power of 
motion and sensation ; and then, again, it is only one arm or one leg 
that is attacked, and then it may extend to other parts of the body. 

Cause. — Brain affection, inflammation or effusion, abscess, soften- 
ing, or blood poisoning of some kind, by opium or tobacco, diseases of 
the kidneys, chorea, also diseases of the spinal chord, excessive sexu- 
al appetite, masturbation, etc. 

Treatment. — If the patient is young and vigorous, a most active 
course of treatment should be pursued, so as to dimmish the pressure 
on the brain. Mustard applied from the extremities to the knees, with 
strict attention paid to diet and hygiene, bathing and frictionising the 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOE ALL. b^ 

body with the hands ; in fact this is a stubborn disease to deal with, 
and human magnetism is the most potent remedy that we know of in 
this disease. It will yield to the magnetic treatment from the loving 
hand of a friend when it will yield to no other treatment. You must 
have confidence as well as patience in this disease, and treatment for 
it is slow to yield. The affected parts should be manipulated well 
with the hand, and lastly passes made all the way down from the top 
of the head down the spine to the feet, for half an hour, after the other 
parts have been vigorously treated by rubbing well. 

Electricity is also good in this disease, but it must be applied by 
one who thoroughly understands the application of it. 

The following prescription we have always found the best that we 
have ever used for this disease : 

Oil of olive, one ounce. 

Oil of cinnamon, 

Oil of cloves, of each one drachm. 

Muriate of ammonia, two and a half drachms. 

Aqua opium, 

Alcohol, of each two ounces. 

Water, sufficient to make a four-ounce mixture. 

Mix well. 

Xow apply this lotion to the affected parts twice a day with the 
hand, and rub it in well. 



DYSPEPSIA. 

This disease occurs with different diseases of the stomach in part, 
and also partly as a symptom in conditions, the causes of which have 
never been satisfactorily explained. 

Symptoms. — The manifestations are very similar, in many cases, to 
catarrh of the stomach — pressure and a sensation of fulness in the re- 
gion of the stomach, bloating, appetite is diminished, sometimes there 
is aversion to all kinds of food, and great desire for pickles and highly 
seasoned dishes. Digestion is much slower than usual. Food is often 
vomited several hours after a meal, not digested at all or penetrated 
with acidity or gases, producing flatulence, which finds relief by belch- 
ing. The bowels are generally costive. Dyspepsia is not a dangerous, 
but generally a very obstinate disease. 

Causes. — Overfilling the stomach with large quantities of food, 
impairing digestion. Too large quantities of cold or warm water. All 



90 PEAELS OF WISDOM, 

articles of food which lessen digestion, such as coffee, tea and spiritu ' 
ous beverages, and those also which are easily transposed into acids' 
or vinegar, or butter, or which have already changed in part before 
eating, rich or sour milk, sour beer, sour wine, old cheese and spoilt 
meat. 

Dyspepsia may also be formed in all febrile diseases, with scrofu- 
la, diabetes, etc., and may also originate after diseases of the nerves 
and mind. 

Teeatment. — Diet is of the greatest importance in the treatment 
of dyspepsia. Only very easily digestible articles of food are to be al- 
lowed. To these belong flour and milk soups, very thin beef tea, but- 
termilk, raw or very soft boiled eggs, game, pigeons, white meats, soft 
smoked ham, wheat bread ; but, on the contrary, the following are 
hard to digest and to be avoided : All hulled \-egetables. as beans, 
peas, etc., rye bread, cake, fat meats, fat soups, hard smoked ham, etc. 
The patient is only allowed to take small quantities at a time, never 
till his stomach full, and never eat until fully satisfied. Patients are 
only allowed to eat again when we can judge that the food previously 
taken is perfectly digested and has passed through the stomach. AVith 
healthy grown people this takes place in from four to six hours, but 
with dyspeptics a much longer time is needed. The dyspeptic should 
eat only very plain food, and avoid many varieties of food at one meal. 
He also should not eat late evenings, nor go to bed with a full stom- 
ach. Much drinking of cold water is especially to be avoided. An 
important point of the treatment lies in a perfect regularity of habits, 
as eating, sleeping, etc. 

Then the following prescription is in order, and will do you good 
service : 

Fluid extract of columbo root, 

• Fluid extract of tag-alder, of each one-half ounce. 
Fluid extract of hydrastis, one-half drachm. 
Diluted phosphoric acid, three drachms- 
Tincture of nux vomica, one-half drachm. 
Syrup of wild cherry, 

Syrup of lemon, of each sufficient to make a six-ounce mixture. 
Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonf ul after each meal, and one on going to bed. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL 91 



DROPSY. 



This is a disease too deep to go into the details of its history and 
causes for the space of our little book, farther than to say that it 
may become partial or general in its manifestations- The main cause 
is from the large venous trunk being compressed, or obliterated, so that 
the blood can no longer circulate through it, while the collateral ves- 
sels can not be relieved ; hence dropsical effusion is the result, and the 
effusion is in proportion to the size and importance of the vein obliter- 
ated or compressed- If. for instance, in the vena cava, or large vein 
in the abdomen, compression or any other obstacle should prevent the 
return of the blood, then the two lower intestines, as well as the scro- 
tum, would become filled with water, or serum, and collections may 
perhaps also take place in the abdomen. Then again, if this obstruc- 
tion takes place at the very center of circulation, namely, the heart, 
in this case the return of blood everywhere would become embar- 
rassed : then the dropsical effusion would become general. A cold 
will often produce dropsy, as will also eruptive skin diseases, such as 
scarlet fever, or rheumatism, or it may result from degeneration of the 
kidneys, or from glandular enlargement of the liver, etc., etc. Albu- 
men is always present in the urine in this disease. This can be dis- 
covered by boiling the urine in a small tube, the albumen becoming 
like the white of an egg boiled. 

Symptoms. — In the first stages, weakness and dyspepsia, and the 
blood loses its red particles very rapidly, but there is little to call at- 
n to the kidneys. Then, in the second stages, the symptoms are 
a pallid, pasty complexion, and often a dry, hard skin ; drowsiness, 
weakness, indigestion and frequent nausea, often retching the first 
thing in the morning, and often palpitation of the heart. A most 
characteristic symptom is that the patient is awakened several times 
during the night with a desire to make water. 

Treatment. — This is one of those harrassing complaints which 
physicians who are in family practice seldom have the patience to in- 
vestigate and manage with sufficient care. The condition of the stom- 
ach, bowels and skin should have special attention. Free action of 
the skin should be had, as in this way the kidneys are relieved, and 
thus the blood is purified. Stimulating diuretics should not be used, 
but, to get up a free diuresis, resort at once to the hot-air bath two or 
three times a week, followed by oiling the body well with goose grease 
or olive oil, rubbing it in well with the hands- A counter irritation 
should be made over the region of the kidneys. 



92 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

It is our confident belief that this grave disease can be cured in 
nearly every instance if not too far advanced. We know it from the 
success that has always attended our treatment. We will cheerfully 
and gladly attend any of our readers in the place where we are at 
work selling our book, who may have this disease. We will now give 
you a prescription for this disease, to be given during the other treat- 
ment which we have just given you. It has always given us the most 
happy results : 

Fluid extract of unicorn root (Helonin), 

Fluid extract of Indian hemp (Apocynum canhabinum), of each 
one-half ounce ; 

Glycerine sufficient to make a four-ounce mixture. 

Mix. 

Dose, teaspoonful every two or three hours, as the case will de- 
mand. If the stomach is weak and will not tolerate the medicine 
without nausea, then take less of it at a dose and oftener. 

INTERMITTENT FEVER. 

This disease is commonly called Fever and Ague, or Chilis and 
Fever, as the name implies. It is too well known by the common 
people to need any description by us. It is distinguished by the phys- 
icians under the following names : Quotidian, if the fit of chills and 
fever return every day ; Tertian, if the fit comes on every third day ; 
Quartan, if it comes on every fourth day. The length of the intervals 
determ in es the variety of Ague, and when those varieties duplicate, 
then they are called Double Quotidian, etc, etc. 

This disease should not be allowed to run long, but should have 
prompt and efficient treatment at once, as it is liable to run into a 
chronic form and the liver and spleen and kidneys become seriously 
affected, and sometimes dropsy is the result. We have no doubt that 
this disease in the past has -caused more harrassing trouble to the old- 
school physicians to get control of and cure, than perhaps all other 
fevers combined ; yet it is the most simple and easy disease for us to 
cure, and we will guarantee to cure it every time without the use of 
-quinine, either. So here is the prescription and treatment : 

Fluid extract of Grindelia squarrosa, 

Fluid extract of Eucalyptus globulus, of each one ounce ; 

Fluid extract of Baptisia tinctora, one drachm ; 

Fluid extract of Podophyllum peltatum, 

Tincture of nux vomica, of each half drachm ; 

Glycerine sufficient to make a six-ounce mixture. 

Mix. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 93 

Dose, teaspoonful every three hours, for a day or so then three 
times per day until it is all taken. 

During this time you must take three or four alcohol sweats (as 
described on page 29. in which we describe our bath-box ), followed 
each time by a good, brisk rubbing. This treatment alone will cure 
this disease everv time, sure. 



Dr. Jones' Home Turkish Bath* 



As partially described on page 28, the following dimensions will 
show how each family can make a Turkish Bath of their own at a 
trifling expense, from lumber that is plowed and grooved, five-eighths 
of an inch in thickness : 

Four feet high, 3 feet 6 inches long. 2 feet 3 inches wide — all in- 
side measurement ; IS inches high in front up to the door ; S inches 
from the back of the bath to the edge of the hole which receives the 
neck : hole for the neck, 5 inches in diameter ; from the edge of the 
hole in front of that to the door, 6 inches — this will give you the slant 
of the door. There must be a slot cut in front of the hole for the neck r 
•5 inches wide, so that when the bather seats himself on the seat in the 
bath-box his neck can go back through this slot to the hole prepared 
for the neck; this slot must befitted in, afrer the bather is in position, 
with a block with tongue and groove, so that when it is slipped to its- 
place it will fit the neck nicely. Then you can shut the door, and 
in readiness to proceed with your bath. 

The water tank should be as high up and as far away from the 
bath box as convenient, so as to get all the fall or force from the water 
through the spray, which should strike the bather with as much force 
as he can bear. However, all can see at a glance the bath box, 
r, water tank, and faucet with hose attached, without any fur- 
ther description. 



94 



PEARLS OF WISDOM, 




H represents the seat, a stool which is made to raise or lower at 
will. D, small slide door, in front of which, on the outside of the bath 
box, is a small shelf attached to hold soap, sponge, brush, and such 
other things as the bather will need, and to which, by pushing back 
the slide door, he can help himself at will when he takes a bath with- 
out an attendant. G, slide door in the main door, through which to 
pour additional hot water in the foot bath when required. A, slide 
door to admit the alcohol lamp under the patient when you want to 
take an alcoholic sweat, or Turkish bath, as it is called. E, India rub- 
ber hose, which is attached to the water tank, on the other end of 
which is attached a very finely punctured spray nozzle, which can be 
procured at the plumber's or gas-fitter's. C, stop-cock to let the waste- 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 95- 

water run away into the waste-pipe or drain. B, iron pan, large 
enough to set the bath-box inside of it, to catch the water in case you 
should desire to give an invalid a bath in a bed chamber or on a par- 
lor carpet. 

This is a portable bath, and costs but little to build. Any one 
can see at a glance the practicability of such a bath arrangement. For 
cleansing purposes it is unequaled, as the bather can rinse himself off 
first with the spray, then soap or lather himself thoroughly. By hav- 
ing the top of the bath-box on hinges to turn back, he can stand up 
and spray himself off as much or as long as he chooses ; or he can sit 
down on a low stool, shut himself all up in the bath, and spray him- 
self off, the water running on him in imitation of a hard shower of 
rain, and running off in the waste-pipe all the while. In this way you 
get more benefit from the water than to lie down in it ; therefore it is- 
more scientific. 

Besides all these advantages, we have a combination bath-tub all 
in one. We can give a better Turkish bath in this box at your own 
home than you can get in any large city in the world, for, inasmuch 
as there are many who cannot stand the hot air on their heads, you 
can take the hot air sweat with the head outside of the box ; or, you 
can sit on a low stool, shut the bath-box all up, and in this way you 
have the real Turkish bath, only better in every way. Then you can 
give the vapor bath, the electrical bath, the sulphur fume bath, and 
the medicated vapor bath, all in this one box, each of which can be 
followed by the spray bath. The water can be warmed by the stove,, 
and be prepared to suit the taste previous to taking the bath. 



Recipes, Etc, 



CONSTIPATION OF THE BOWELS. 

INFALLIBLE PRESCRIPTION. 

Fluid extract of cascara sagrada, one ounce. 

Fluid extract of grindelia squarrosa, 

Fluid extract of berberis aquifolium, of each one-half ounce. 

Fluid extract of podophylum peltatum, 

Tincture of nux vomica, of each one-half drachm. 

Citric acid, one-half drachm. 

Glycerine, two and one-half ounces. 

Mix. 



96 PEARLS OF WISDOM. 

Dose : Teaspoonful after each meal and on going to bed. 

This medicine acts slow at first, but when once its action takes 
place, then less quantity of the medicine is required — taken twice per 
day, or once per day, or it can be taken once every other day, but the 
medicine must be taken regular enough to have the bowels move under 
its influence, till the medicine is all taken up. This will cure those per- 
sistent cases of constipation effectually as no other prescription ever 
did. It is invaluable. It is worth more than the price of a dozen 
books like this. The fluid extract of cascara sagrada of Park, Davis & 
Co.'s manufacture, we have always found the best preparation- The 
cascara is good for dyspepsia ; taken in small doses we consider this 
one of the most valuable remedies ever given to medical science. 



FOR COMMON BILIOUS CONDITION. 

Tincture of gelsemium, 

Tincture of nux vomica, of each one drachm. 

Citric acid, one-half drachm. 

Sulphate of quinine, thirty grains. 

Glycerine, two and one-half ounces. 

Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful in a little water after each meal. 



CHOLERA INFANTUM. 

Tincture of nux vomica, 

Tincture of ipecac, 

Tincture of baptisia, of each ten drops. 

Tincture of aconite root, five drops. 

Lactopeptine, one-half drachm. 

Glycerine, 

Aqua camphora, of each two ounces. 

Mix. 

Dose to a child eighteen months or two years old : Give teaspoon- 
ful every half hour till relieved, then prolong the intervals. 

If the child is very restless and does not sleep well, you may give 
the following : 

Bromide of potassium, two drachms. 

Fluid extract of gelsemium, twenty drops. • 

Glycerine, two ounces. 

Mix. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOK ALL. 97 

Dose : Half a teaspoonful every half or one hour till the child 
gets quiet or goes to sleep, then stop this medicine till the child gets 
restless again. 

Remember, all the prescriptions under this head you can get your 
druggist to put up for you. These medicines should be marked what 
they are for, and put away carefully and kept through the summer, 
to be used as occasion requires. 



CATARRH OF THE BLADDER. 

The common skunk bush (ustilago maydis or rhus aroma tica.) 

Fluid extract, of Park, Davis & Co.'s manufacture. 

Teaspoonful at a dose, in a little sweetened water, three or four 
times a day ; as the symptoms improve prolong the intervals. 

For diabetes (insipidus) — children wetting the bed — take 

Rhus aromatica, one ounce. 

Glycerine, two ounces. 

Water, one ounce. 

Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful every three or four hours, as the case may 
demand. 

This is a new remedy, introduced to the profession by Dr. Mc- 
Clanahan. He says that for all of those bladder troubles this remedy 
alone surpasses all others. It has been well endorsed by many other 
eminent physicians as accomplishing all that Dr. McClanahan claims 
for it. We have had no case nor occasion to try it yet. 



MALARIAL AFFECTIONS. 

Tincture of iodine, ten drops in a third of a tumbler of sweetened 
water at one dose, three times per day, cures it better and quicker 
than quinine. For children, give proportionate doses. 



RHEUMATISM. 

Iodide potassium, one-half ounce. 

Solid extract conium, two drachms. 

Syrup aralia, compound of American Dispensatory, six ounces. 

Mix. 



PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



Dose : Teaspoonful three times per day. 

Dr. Pitzer says this will never fail to cure any kind of muscular 
rheumatism. 



HOW TO PREVENT A FELON. 

It is unnecessary for any one to have a felon if the white of an egg 
and half a teaspoonful of salt is applied in time. It will scatter it at 
once. We have tried it many times with success. But if it is not 
done in time it will do no good. 

• But the following prescription will draw it to the surface very 
quickly : 

Take equal parts of brown soap and unslaked lime, equal parts of 
whisky and common kerosene, until a salve is made, and bind it on 
the felon. In twenty-four hours it will draw the matter to the sur- 
face, when it can be removed. 



BONE FELONS, CARBUNCLES AND BO!LS. 

To allay the pain in these distressing comforters use the following 
prescription : 

Tincture of aconite root, 

Tincture of arnica, 

Tincture of cantharides, 

Tincture of veratrum, of each two drachms. 

Tincture of iodine, three drachms. 

Mix. 

Saturate a cotton cloth and apply to the parts, and keep it wet 
with the mixture till the pain ceases, and give twenty-drop doses of 
the arnica every hour. 



POISON OAK OR IVY. 

Cosmoline, one ounce. 
Bromine, one-half drachm. 
Mix. 

Apply to the affected parts two or three times a day. Wash off 
the medicine twice a day with a little castile soap and soda water, and 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 99 

on going to bed apply the medicine thoroughly. "Warm the cosmoline 
so that the bromine will mix well, then keep the bottle well corke d 
and setting bottom side up,, as the bromine will escape upwards. 



CHAPPED HANDS, FACE OR LIPS. 

Cosmoline is the most excellent of anything that we have ever 
used. Apply it several times a day. 



CONVULSIONS IN LITTLE CHILDREN. 

Bromide of sodium, forty grains. 
Simple syrup, one-half ounce. 
Camphor water, one-half ounce. 
Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful every two or three hours. 
For a child three years old, three grains of bromide of sodium in 
a little simple syrup, three times a day. 



SUMMER DIARRHEA IN LITTLE CHILDREN. 

From eighteen months to five years old, give them 
Sugar of milk, one-half ounce. 
Lactopeptine, fifteen grains. 
Hydrochloric acid, 

Lactic acid, of each one-half drachm. 

Tincture of prickly ash berries (Xanthoxylum), one drachm. 
Syrup of lemon, 
Water, of each one ounce. 
Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful every hour, or half a teaspoonful every half 
hour is better, and as the symptoms improve prolong the intervals. 



FOR RICKETY CHILDREN. 

For little children whose muscles are flabby, whose bones are 
weak and who seem not to grow strong, give them 
Hypophosphite of lime. 
Hypophosphite of potassium, of each one drachm. 



100 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

Hydrochloric acid. 

Fluid extract of yellow root (Hydrastis) of each one-half drachm. 
Lactopeptine, one-half drachm. 
Syrup of rhubarb, one-half ounce- 
Syrup of lemon, three ounces. 
Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful three times a day. Bathe your child in soda 
water ; alternate it with a little salt and water. 



RHEUIVIATfC GOUT. 

Tincture of blue flag (iris versicolor) three drachms. 
Tincture of prickly ash, (Xanthoxylum ) one drachm. 
Glycerine, four ounces. 
Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful three times a day. Sponging and bathing the 
bodv are alwavs called for in this disease. 



PROFUSE MENSTRUATION. 

Fluid extract of ergot, 

Fluid extract of hammamelis, of each one drachm. 

Fluid extract of Indian hemp ( cannabis Indica) two and one-half 
drachms. 

Fluid extract of black cohosh (Macroty's) one drachm. 

Glycerine, three ounces. 

Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful every one or two hours as the case requires, 
or it can be taken every half hour in urgent cases. As the symptoms 
improve prolong the intervals. 

PASNFUl MENSTRUATION. 

Fluid extract wild yam (dioscorea vil.) one and a half drachms. 
Fluid extract of gelseminum, one drachm. 
Tincture of aconite root, 10 drops. 
Glycerine, 

Water, of each two ounces, 
Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful every hour till relieved, then prolong the in- 
tervals. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL, 101 



EXCESS OF VOMITING, 



Tincture of mix vomica, from two to five drops. 
Tincture of ipecac, from xen to fifteen drops. 
Water, four ounces. 
Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful every half hour. 

Also, a weak decoction of peach tree leaves, or apple tree leaves, 
taken alternately with the above will do the work. 



NIPPLE WASH. (Dr. Attler's Celebrated). 

Powdered borax, one drachm. 

Gum Arabic, two drachms. * 

Tincture of rayrrh, three drachms. 

Distilled water, four ounces. 

Mix. 

ly to the sore nipples two or three times a day. 



NURSING SORE MOUTH. 

Pure rain water, one-half gallon. 

Pulverized yellow root (Hydrastis), one ounce. 

Burnt alum, one ounce. 

Table salt, one ounce. 

"While you are burning the alum, and while it is bubbling, 
sprinkle the salt over the alum. Mix all together with the juice of 
anions and let stand in the sun three or four days, shaking occa- 
sionally. Apply to the gums and ulcers with a cotton rag two or three 
times a day. If it is too strong for the sore parts, weaken with a little 
and water. 

Dr. J. Bobb says this never fails to cure these troubles. 

ISTEESAL MEDICINE FOR SAME. 

- realizing cordial, of American Dispensatory, four ounces. 
lid extract of stone root (collinsonia), 
Fluid extract of hydrastis canadensis, of each two drachms. 
•act of black cohosh, iMacroty'si. 



102 PEAELS OF WISDOM, 

Fluid extract of white snake root, (eupatorium aromaticum), of 

each one-half ounce. 
Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful three or four times per day. For the child, 
weaken it accordingly. 

TONIC FOR DISEASE OF THE KIDNEY. 

Balsam of Fir, three ounces. 

Balm of Gilead buds, fresh ones, two ounces. 

Linn bark, one ounce. 

Steep the buds and bark slowly in sufficient water to get the 
strength out of the medicine, in a covered vessel. Then strain and 
add sufficient sugar to make a pint of the mass. Now cut the balsam 
with a pint of good Holland gin, by shaking thoroughly. Then add 
the syrup of the buds^and bark, and shake well. 

Dose : Teaspoonful three or four times a day. 

This is one of the most valuable tonics for diseases of the kidney, 
with constant pain in the back, we have ever used. It is invaluable. 

INACTION OF THE KIDNEYS. 

Fluid extract of queen of the meadow, (eupatorium purpureum) 
one-half ounce. 

Fluid extract of pleurisy root (aclepias tub.) one drachm. 

Fluid extract of blood root (sanguinaria cana) twenty drops. 

Nitrate of potass., two and a half drachms. 

Syrup of lemon, 

Syrup of ginger, of each two ounces. 

Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful every three hours. 

This prescription is very excellent following rheumatism or ma- 
larial fevers to set free the poison in the blood and carry it out of the 
system through the kidneys. 

DIPHTHERIA. 

Dialyzed iron, two drachms ; 
Chlorate of potassa, one drachm ; 
Tincture of iodine, five drops ; 
Distilled water, half ounce ; 
Glycerine, one and one-half ounces. 
Mix. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 105 

Dose, to a child five years old. half a teaspoonful in a little sweet- 
ened water, every one or two hours, as the case demands. 

FOB EXTERNAL APPLICATION. 

Fluid extract of belladonna.two ounces ; 

Hydrate of chloral, half ounce ; 

Glycerine, half ounce. 

Dissolve the chloral in two ounces of water; then mix all to- 
gether. Xow apply this on the outside of the throat with a cotton 
cloth, and a flannel cloth over that. 



ERYSIPELAS. 

Dialyzed iron, half ounce : 

Tincture of iodine, ten drops ; 

Sulphate of quinine, twenty grains ; 

Glycerine, one and one-half ounces. 

Mix. 

Dose, half a teaspoonful in a little water every three hours. 

In this disease, remember, the bowels must be kept open by ca- 
thartics, or injections of a little salt and water. 

For external treatment in erysipelas, use the following prescriptions 

Sulphate of soda, two drachms ; 

Tincture of wild yam Dioscorea Till.), 

Tincture of veratrum vir.. 

Tincture of lobelia seed, of each two drachms : 

Distilled water, four ounces. 

Mix. 

TTet a cotton cloth in this mixture and lay it on the affected parts 
and keep it moist with the medicine. If the disease is on the face, 
care should be taken not to get any of the medicine in the eyes. 

RHEUMATISM. 

Iodide of potassa. five drachms ; 

Solid extract of conium, two drachms : 

Syrup of aralia | the compound of the American Dispensatory I, six 

ounces. 
Mix. 

Dose, teaspoonful three or four times per da v. 
Dr. Pitzer says this will cure rheumatism when ail other remedies 
fail. AVe have never tried it. 



104 PEARLS OF WISDOM. 



DRESSINGS FOR BURNS AND ULCERS. 

Carbolic acid, half drachm ; 
Cosmoline, three ounces ; 
Balsam of Fir, two ounces ; 
Water, one ounce. 

Warm the cosmoline first ; then mix the balance and stir till cold. 
Apply this to the burn or ulcers as a dressing. 



EAR-ACHE. 

Glycerine of tannin, half ounce ; 

Tincture of laudanum, twenty drops ; 

Sulphate of hydrastin, two grains ; 

Sulphuric ether, one drachm. 

Mix. 

Drop three or four drops of this medicine in the ear, from off the 
end of a little stick is the best. We have never known this to fail in a 
single instance to cure this distressing disease in children in a very few 
minutes. 

FOR THE ITCH. 

Oil of bergamot, half ounce ; 
Glycerine, one and one-half ounces. 
Mix. 

Apply in the evening and wash off in the morning with a little 
soda-water and soap. Pleasant and effectual. (Dr. Yaunkin.) 



LOST APPETITE. 

Tincture of Apocynum canabinum (Indian hemp), half drachm ;. 

Tincture of Hydrastis canad., one drachm ; 

Elixir of vitriol, three drachms ; 

Simple syrup, four ounces. 

Mix. 

Dose, teaspoonful after each meal. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 105 



Magnetic Liniment, for Rheumatism, Sprains, or Stiff Joints. 

Oil of lavender, 

Oil of sassafras, 

Oil of cedar, 

Oil of organuin, 

Oil of spearmint. 

Aqua ammonia, fff, of each two ounces. 

The whites of three eggs, well mixed and cut with half a pint of 
alcohol. Dilute a little part of it with water, and pour on the eggs, 
little at a time, and shake hard ; then pour on a little more and shake, 
and so on, as the alcohol will cook the eggs if it is poured on full 
strength and all at once. Then, after the eggs are well amalgamated, 
add all of the balance of the ingredients at once ; then add half an 
ounce of tincture of camphor. Shake well every time you use "it, as 
the mixture separates on standing. This is the most valuable liniment 
ever given to the world for this purpose. It must be kept well corked, 
as the medicine will evaporate. You must apply it with the hand, 
and rub it in well. Don't be in a hurry ; take plenty of time in apply- 
ing it, as the medicine is slow in penetrating the muscles and mem- 
branes. The author has made many remarkable cures with this lini- 
ment, after all hopes of the patient had fled. 



Magnetic Lotion, or Liniment, for the Human Body. 

Oil of amber, 

Oil of lavender, 

Oil of organium, 

Oil of sassafras. 

Oil of spearmint, of each, half ounce ; 

Oil of olives, one ounce ; 

•Spirits of turpentine, half ounce ; 

Aqua amonia, half ounce ; 

Tincture of opium, one ounce ; 

Alcohol, not quite one pint. 

Mix. 

This lotion is most excellent for bathing the chest or the entire 
body of persons of weak lungs, or anybody that is weak from loss of 
vitality; or it is splendid for all kinds of sore throat, to bathe the 



106 PEAELS OF WISDOM, 

throat well with it, then saturate a flannel with the medicine and pin 
it around the throat. Some of our patients have pronounced this 
remedy splendid for rheumatism, or sprains, and weak back. 



DR. JONES' RESTORATIVE COMPOUND. 

FOR INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL USE. 

Good for Cholera Morbus, Nervous Headache, and all kinds of 
Telaxed conditions of the Bowels : 

Oil of organium, 

Oil of sassafras, of each, one ounce ; 
Pure sweet spirits of nitre, three ounces ; 
Saturated tincture of camphor, one ounce ; 
Essence of peppermint, two drachms ; 
Fluid extract of capsicum, one drachm ; 
Chloroform, three ounces ; 
Aqua amonia, fff, two ounces ; 
Ninety-eight per cent alcohol, half a pint. 
Mix, and keep well corked. 

For sprains bruises, rheumatism, or weak back, bathe the parts 
well with the medicine, applied with the hands. 

To treat a case of cholera, the medicine takes the place of a mustard 
draft, by wetting the hand (or a piece of silk oil-cloth is still better) 
and laying it on the stomach, wrists and bottoms of the feet, taking 
care to hold the hand still, excluding all the ah from the body and hand 
where it is applied, and give a half teaspoonful internally every ten or 
fifteen minutes, as directed for internal use below. Frictionize the body 
all over well with the medicine, by rubbing with the hands lively till 
the body smarts or feels hot ; then cover the patient all up in a dry, 
hot blanket. 

For nervous sich head-ache, bathe the temples, back of the ears 
and neck, and a little on top of the head. Smell the medicine occa- 
sionally, and take half a teaspoonful every ten or fifteen minutes, as 
per directions for internal use. 

FOR INTERNAL USE. 

The medicine must be prepared as follows : 

To one teaspoonful of the medicine add two of water ; mix in a 
tumbler, stir up well, and must be mixed as it is used, as it loses its qual- 
ities by exposure to the air. Keep the bottle well corked. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 107 

For Chronic Diarrhoea — Dose, one teaspoonful to one and a half, 
as the case requires, from every half hour to four and six hours. 

For children, the medicine must be weakened by adding more 
w r ater and a little sugar, according to the age of the child, and as your 
judgment dictates. 

N. B. — Remember, this medicine must never be taken internally 
full strength, as it will burn your stomach. 

This medicine is invaluable, and should be kept on hand in every 
family. The author has saved the life of many a person with this 
medicine, who would have died had we not had it on hand. It is the 
most valuable of all medicines in such cases as described above. The 
medicine is always in great demand wherever the author is known. 



CATARRH SNUFF. 

Powdered bayberry root, one and one-half drachms ; 
Powdered galangal root, one and one-half drachms ; 
Powdered valerian, thirty-six grains ; 
Powdered blood root, sixteen grains ; 
Powdered camphor gum, fifteen grains ; 
Powdered burnt alum, thirty-six grains. 
Mix, and triturate all together well. 

Snuff a little of this up the nostrils three or four times per day. It 
is the best snuff that we have ever used for catarrh, followed by the 
nasal douche once per day. 



Powders for Cramps in the Stomach or Bowels, or Diaphoretic 

Powder. 

Powdered opium, ten grains ; 
Powdered ipecac, twenty-five grains ; 
Powdered camphor, forty grains ; 
Powdered saltpetre, two and one-half drachms. 
Mix, and triturate well all together. 

From three to five grains to a dose, repeated, if necessary, every 
three or four hours- Dr. Scudder says this is most excellent in all 
such cases. 



108 PEAELS OF WISDOM, 



DYSENTERY— BLOODY FLUX. 

Fluid extract of chamomile, one drachm ; 

Fluid extract of epilobium, ( "wake up willow" herb), one drachm ; 

Fluid extract of crane's-bill (geranium), half drachm ; 

Fluid extract of saffron (Crocus satava), one drachm ; 

Fluid extract of Seneca snake root (Polvgala Seneca), two drachms ; 

Camphor gum, five grains ; 

Pulverised opium, twenty grains ; 

Best brandy, two ounces. 

(Dissolve the opium and the camphor first in the brandy.) 

Syrup of ginger, 

Syrup of lemon, of each sufficient to make six ounces. 

Mix. Shake well. 

Dose : For a child of one year or under, from four to six drops, 
in a little sweetened water ; two years old, from eight to ten drops ; 
four years old, twenty drops ; adults, from one to one and one-half tea- 
spoonfuls, from every half hour to four and six hours apart, as the 
case demands. 

This is a sure cure for bloody flux, diarrhoea, and all relaxed con- 
ditions of the bowels. We never knew it to fail in a single case where 
there were no other complications. But, should there be Mamma- 
tion of the bowels, you must put the patient on oat-meal water to 
drink and slippery elm, and injections of the same. Diet, extract of 
beef, milk punch, etc. See pages 14 and 17. 



PILES— HEMORRHOIDS. 

Fluid extract of hammamelis, 

Fluid extract of ergot, 

Fluid extract of hydrastis canadensis, 

Fluid extract of collinsonia, 

Fluid extract of pinus canadensis, 

Tincture of arnica, 

Tincture of laudanum, 

Simple syrup, 

Distilled water, of each one ounce. 

Burnt alum, one-half drachm. 

Glycerine of tannin, one-half ounce. 

Mix. 



GE*£3 OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 109 

Take a small ear syringe and inject ten or fifteen drops up into 
the rectum. ; after which lie down and keep quiet, and take a small 
tuft of pure cotton and saturate it with the mixture and keep it pressed 
up against the tumors, and keep them constantly moist with the med- 
icine for several days, or longer if required. If the medicine is too 
strong for the inflamed parts, it can be weakened with a little sweet 
oil or simple syrup and oil. This will absorb the tumors in a very 
short 'time, as well as relieve the pain in this most distressing dis- 
ease, and perform a cure in a very short time without resorting to 
surgical operations or caustics. 

This is the most valuable remedy for this disease ever given to the 
world. The author has never failed to cure every case he has ever 
undertaken with this medicine. Ointments are useless, except the 
-cosnioline. 

INTERNAL REMEDY FOB HEMORRHOIDS. 

Tincture of gesculas hipp., (horse-chestnut.) 

Tincture of Phytolacca decand, (poke-root) of each one-half ounce. 

Mix. 

Dose : Twenty drops in half a tumbler of water ; teaspoonful 
every hour. 

This should be taken for several days, mixing it up fresh every 
day in water. 

COUGH SYRUPS. 

There are so many kinds of coughs that arise from so many causes, 
we will proceed to give you a formula that you can always vary 
yourself to meet the indications. However, you must remember, that 
a syrup made from the spices, cloves, cinnamon, alspice, cardamon 
seed, etc, are always called for in a cough arising from no matter what 
cause. This you can make yourself and keep it on hand, and always 
add a little of this syrup to your cough syrup, just sufficient to flavor 
it. We will call this No. 1. 

BALSAM FOR WEAK LUNGS-No. 2. 

Oil of sweet almonds, one ounce. 

Oil of anise, two drachms. 

Gum Arabic, dissolved, one ounce. 

Tincture of horehound, one ounce. 

Tincture of Jamaica ginger, one-half ounce. 

Syrup of stillingia, two ounces. 

Jsyrup of honey, one ounce. 

Good brandy, two ounces. 

Mix. 

10 



110 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

Now you can add about one ounce of No. 1 to this, sufficient to 
make a ten-ounce mixture- 

Dose : Half a teaspoonf ul every half hour till the cough is better, 
then prolong the intervals to one, two or three hours, as the case may 
require. 

COUGHS FROM COLDS, WITH SORE LUNGS— No. 3. 

Fluid extract of asclepias tub. (pleurisy root), 

Fluid extract of sweet bugle weed (lycopus virg.), 

Fluid extract of stone root (collinsonia), of each one drachm. 

Tincture of lobelia seed, twenty drops. 

Tincture of ipecac, one-half drachm. 

Syrup of horehound, one ounce. 

Syrup of stillingia, two ounces. 

Good brandy, one ounce. * 

Mix. 

Now you can add one-half ounce of No. 1. 

Dose: Teaspoonful every hour or two hours; for children, reduce 
accordingly. 

If either of these remedies are a little too strong they can always 
be reduced with a little water, or the juice of one lemon and water, 
to suit the requirements ; and they all can be varied to suit the indi- 
cations. Your druggist can put them up for you, and they will keep 
for years without spoiling. 

Note. — The crab apple made into sauce is very good for all bronchial 
troubles, or you can stew and strain them, and add the juice to either of 
the above cough syrups, after sweetening to the taste. Now you have 
the finest cough medicines that we have ever used. 



SPRAINS. 

Take a large spoonful of honey, the same amount of salt and the 
white of one egg ; beat the whole up incessantly for two hours ; then 
let stand for one hour ; then anoint the place sprained with the oil 
which will be produced from the mixture. This is said to have ena- 
bled persons with sprained ankles to walk, in twenty-four hours, en- 
tirely free from pain. — King. 

HEALING SALVE. 

One-half pound of beeswax, one-half pound of salty butter, one- 
quarter pound of turpentine, six ounces of the Balsam of Fir. Sim- 
mer slowly for half an hour, when it is ready for use. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR, ALL. Ill 

Dr. Curtiss has used this preparation for years for old sores, 
wounds and burns, and has never found anything to surpass it. 



Sure Cure fop Bunions, or Frost-Bitten Feet. 

Take the common glue, prepare it in the same way that the cabi- 
net makers do, only pretty thick, spread it on a piece of lines, the size 
you want it, and apply it to the bunion as hot as can be borne ; let it 
remain there for several days, and repeat it if necessary. It will do it 
every time, for we have cured poor creatures niany a time.. 



SCURVY. 

Plenty of lemon juice, sweetened to taste, cures it every time, or 
lemon syrup or syrup of citric acid, may be used instead. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

Tablespoonful of the juice of a roasted lemon, sweetened to the 
taste, is an excellent remedy for coughs, taken every two or three 
hours. 

The juice of one lemon to a half a glass of water, sweetened just 
a little, used as a gargle, will cure many a mild case of diphtheria, and 
a little swallowed each time is all the better. 

With the juice of two lemons added to a gill of water and one of 
brandy, and applied externally, we have cured many cases of erysipe- 
las after all other remedies had failed. 

The juice of one lemon, sweetened to taste, half a teaspoonful 
taken every fifteen minutes, has cured many a case of sick headache 
for us- 
Lemonade is also an admirable drink for all kinds of cases of fevers. 

It is also a grateful and refreshing drink for those who are well, 
when they are very tired and thirsty. 

Equal parts of lemon juice and glycerine, will, ordinarily, remove 
tan and freckles from the face and hands. Trv it. 



112 



PEAELS OF WISDOM. 



RING WORM AND TETTER. 

A strong tincture made from the green walnut hulls or rinds, and 
applied externally to the ring worm. Take half a pint of alcohol and 
add a handful of the green hulls to it, and let it stand for five or six 
days, is the way to get the tincture. Also, teaspoonful of this tincture 
added to a half tumbler of water ; stir up well, and take a teaspoonful 
of this every hour internally. It is also advisable to take it for three 
-or four days, making it fresh every morning. 



ENLARGEMENT OF THE SPLEEN. 

Fluid extract of grindelia squarrosa (new remedy), 

Fluid extract of bearsfoot (Polymnia Uvedaiia), of each one ounce 

Glycerine, 

Distilled water, of each one ounce. 

Mix. 

Dose : Teaspoonful every three hours. 

Get your druggist to put it up for you. 



Good for the Kidneys in Dropsical Affections. 

Bruised juniper berries, 

Mustard seed, 

Ginger, of each half ounce. 

Bruised horse-radish, 

Bruised parsley root, of each one ounce. 

Old sour cider, one quart. 

Let stand and infuse for several days. 

Dose : Wineglass full three times per day. 

This is excellent for kidney troubles. 



HOW TO PREPARE POULTICES. 

Equal parts" of ground flax seed, slippery elm bark and oat meal, 
for general, purposes, is the best kind of a poultice that we have ever 
used. It can be mixed with either hot or cold water, as desired for the 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 113 

occasion. If the surface is very tender, it is better to be warm than 
cold when applied. It should be well mixed, that there are no lumps 
in it ; not too thin nor too thick. This poultice will keep moist longer 
than either of the above ingredients by itself. This is the way we al- 
ways prescribe our poultices ; however, they are mostly made from 
either one of the above articles. 

BREAD POULTICE. 

Take several slices of bread, pour over them sufficient hot water, 
and let stand for an hour or so, that the bread may be soft ; then pour 
off the water, and with a fork beat the bread up into a thick dough ; 
spread this on a piece of linen previously cut the size you wish it. 
Bread poultices are very valuable for their bland effect for all irritating 
surfaces. 

For gangreenous and bad smelling ulcers or sores of any kind, 
sprinkle some pulverized charcoal over the ulcer before applying the 
poultice, and it can also be mixed with the poultice. Charcoal poul- 
tices correct offensive smells from foul sores, and favor a healthy 
action. 

Poultices are chiefly used in the following complaints: Pneu- 
monia, pleurisy, bronchitis, peritonitis, acute rheumatism, lumbago, 
and to mature and facilitate the discharges of matter in abcesses, boils, 
etc. When used to mature abscesses or disperse inflammation, poul- 
tices should always extend beyond the surface of the inflamed tissues, 
but after the inflammation is subdued and the .abscess is discharging, 
the poultice should not be much larger than to just cover the opening 
through which the matter is escaping ; if continued too large, they ir- 
ritate, and may develop other boils or abscesses around the old one. 
Poultices over the chest or abdomen should be made very thick and 
not too thin, as they dry very soon. They must be well secured by 
suitable jackets or bandages sufficient to hold them in place. They 
should be often changed on those parts,but do not disturb the old one 
till the new one is all ready to replace it. 

Poultices can be made from many different kinds of substances 
that may have valuable medicinal properties. 

POTATO POULTICE. 

Boil the common potato in the usual way, mash them and mix 
them with ground elm bark. This is a valuable poultice for acute in- 
flammatory sore eyes, applied very thin and changed often. Also, the 
raw scraped potato, in the shape of a poultice, is very valuable for the 
same purpose. 



114 PEAKLS OF WISDOM, 

MUSTARD POULTICE. 

If you wish a very quick action from this poultice, mix the mus- 
tard with vinegar alone into a thick paste, spread it on the cloth thin 
with a case-knife as you would butter on your bread, and lay it on the 
affected parts next to the skin. It will take effect in a very few min- 
utes. You can oil the skin just a little, and as the mustard dries it will 
not stick to the skin or annoy your patient. This is the way it should 
always be applied to the soles of the feet, if you expect any benefit 
from it, and changed often before it gets dry. But if you wish it to 
work slower, you can mix it with equal parts of vinegar and water, 
and add a little wheat flour to the mustard ; spread on your cloth a 
little thicker than the other way ; then lay a very thin piece of linen 
over the mustard before you apply the poultice to the patient. A 
mustard poultice should be kept on from ten to twenty minutes at 
least, till the skin is drawn very red and is irritable afterwards. It is 
said that if the white of an egg is mixed with the mustard it will never 
draw into a blister, and thus it can be kept on longer, which is very 
beneficial. 



HOW TO MAKE FOMENTATIONS. 

Fomentations are employed for the purpose of lessening pain and 
inflammation, and for relaxing the parts. . They are usually composed 
of bitter herbs, steeped for a time in hot water or vinegar and water, 
and then placed in muslin, cloth or sacks and applied over the affected 
parts as hot as can be borne. Care should be taken not to moisten or 
stain the patient's clothes or the bed. They are to be removed often 
and changed for new hot ones ; if the pain or inflammation is severe, 
the oftener they should be changed for hot ones. 

Hop and vinegar fomentations are very valuable for pain in the 
head, bowels, or any other parts of the body. 

St. Johnswort or the poke-root are very valuable, applied hot to 
the mammary breasts, to disperse or scatter the inflammatory condition, 
caked breasts or tumors and swellings ; or the wild indigo fomenta- 
tion is valuable for dispelling tumors from the breasts. The smart- 
weed is also good. 

The Mullein fomentation surpasses everything else that we know 
of for dispelling bruises or swellings in man or beast. A strong de" 
coction made from the mullein leaves, applied, hot or cold, to sprains, 
bruises or swellings, is the best remedy that we know of at present. 
We have used it for years, on both man and beast, with the most as- 
tonishing results. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOE ALL. 115 



VALUABLE TOOTH WASH. 

Guru guaiacum, 

Orris root, of each, one ounce ; 

Camphor gum, one drachm. 

Put these ingredients in a pint of good brandy ; let the mixture 
infuse for ten days, shaking it occasionally ; then strain the mixture 
through a cotton cloth into a clean bottle. 

Wash and cleanse the teeth once in twenty-four hours -with this 
preparation, and bleeding, enlarged or detached gums will be healed, 
lessened and restored in their proper place, and the tooth-ache will 
seldom be experienced. This is the most valuable preparation we 
have ever used. 

TOOTH-ACHE. 

For immediate relief for this dreadful affliction, take 

Oil of cloves, 

Oil of cinnamon, 

Creosote, of each, half drachm ; 

Chloroform, half ounce. 

Mix. 

Take a tuft of cotton wound around the end of a little stick ; now 
saturate the cotton in the mixture, and bathe the gum on each side of 
the tooth with the medicine. If the tooth has a cavity in it, put a 
piece of cotton, saturated with the medicine, in the cavity. This will 
smart and burn for a little while, but no matter ; it will cure the tooth- 
ache for the time. 



Poisons and their Antidotes. 



Nothing that appertains to domestic treatment is of greater value 
than a knowledge of poisons and the treatment necessary in cases of 
accidental or premeditated poisoning. So many substances of a pois- 
onous nature are used in manufactures, among farmers and mechan- 
ics, and also in private houses, that it will be useful to have a guide to 
refer to in case of accident, for in almost every case of poisoning the 
antidote must be instantly given or else success cannot be expected. 



116 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

As a general rule, in all cases of poisoning, especially if seen im- 
mediately after the poison is swallowed, the indication is to make the 
person vomit. To bring this about, give a teaspoonful of mustard in a 
tumbler of water, or two or three teaspoonfuls of powdered alum in 
the same way. Vomiting can in all cases be promoted by tickling the 
throat with a feather. 



ARSENIC. 

Articles : Scheele's green, arsenious acid, arpiment, King's yel- 
low, realgar, fly powder, arsenical paste and soap, rat poison. 

Symptoms. — Pain and burning in the stomach, dryness of throat, 
cramps, purging, vomiting, hoarseness and difficulty of speech, eyes 
red and sparkling, suppression of urine, matter vomited greenish or 
yellowish. 

Treatment. — Give large quantities of milk and raw eggs, lime- 
water, or flour and water. Then castor oil, or if tincture of iron is 
within reach, take from half to a full teaspoonful of it, and mix with 
it a little bi-carbonate of soda or saleratus, and administer it to the 
person, and follow it with an emetic. This acts as a real antidote — 
the chemical combination resulting being insoluble in the fluids of the 
stomach. 

COPPER. 

Articles. — Blue copperas, blue verditer, mineral green, verdigris, 
food cooked in copper vessels, pickles made green by copper. 

Symptoms. — Coppery taste in the mouth, tongue dry and parched, 
very painf ul colic, bloody stools, convulsions. 

Treatment. — Large quanties of milk and white of eggs, afterwards 
strong tea. Vinegar should not be given. 



IRON. 

Articles. — Sulphate of iron (copperas), green vitriol, chloride of 
iron. 

Symptoms.— Colic pains, constant vomiting and purging, violent 
pain in throat, coldness of skin, feeble pulse. 

Treatment. — Give an emetic, afterwards magnesia or carbonate 
of soda and water ; also mucilaginous drinks. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 117 



LEAD. 

Articles. — Acetate or sugar of lead, white lead, red lead, litharge. 

Symptoms. — Metallic taste in mouth, pain in stomach and bowels, 
painful vomiting — often blood, hiccough. If taken for some time, ob- 
stinate colic, paralysis — partial or complete, obstinate constipation, 
diminution of urine. 

Treatment. — Put two ounces of epsom salts into a pint of water 
and give a wineglassful every ten minutes until it operates freely. 

PHOSPHORUS. 

Article. — Lucifer matches. 

Symptoms — Pain in stomach and bo weis, vomiting, diarrhea, tender- 
ness and tension of the abdomen, great excitement of the whole system. 

Treatment. — Prompt emetic, copious draughts of warm water 
containing magnesia, chalk, whiting or even flour. No oils or fat should 
be given. 

OPIUM. 

Articles. — Laudanum, paregoric, black drop, soothing syrups, 
cordials, syrup of poppies, morphine, Dover's powder, etc 

Symptoms. — Giddiness, stupor — gradually increasing to a deep 
sleep, pupil of the eyes very small, lips blue, skin cold, heavy, slow 
breathing. 

Treatment. — Make the patient vomit as quickly as possible. Use 
mustard and warm water or salt and water, and tickle the throat with 
a feather. After vomiting, give plenty of coffee, and place a mustard 
poultice around the calf of each leg, and, if the patient is cold and 
sinking, give stimulants and rouse him to walking or running by your 
assistance. Beat the soles of his feet, dash cold water on the face, and 
do anything to prevent him from sleeping until the effects have passed 
off, for if he goes to sleep it is the sleep of death. 

STRYCHNINE. 

Articles. — Rat poison, nux vomica, St. Ignatius bean. 
Symptoms. — Lockjaw, twitching of the muscles, convulsions, the 
body is bent backwards so as to rest on the feet and head only. 



118 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

Treatment. — Empty the stomach by an emetic, then give linseed 
tea or barley water, and to an adult give thirty drops of laudanum, to 
relieve the spasms. A teaspoonful of ether can also be given. 



OTHER POISONOUS PLANTS OR SEEDS. 

Such as false mushrooms, belladonna, henbane, or anything a child 
may have eaten, or taken in mistake by any person. Vegetable poi- 
sons act either as an irritant, acro-narcotic or narcotic. If it is an irri- 
tant, the symptoms are an acrid, pungent taste, with more or less bit- 
terness, excessive heat, great dryness of the mouth and throat, with 
a sense of tightness there, violent vomiting, purging, with great pain 
in the stomach and bowels, breathing often quick and difficult, appear- 
ance of intoxication, eye frequently dilated, insensibility, resembling 
death. The symptoms of narcotic poisons are described under Opium. 

Treatment. — If an irritant, and vomiting does occur and con- 
tinues, render it easier by large draughts of warm water, but if symp- 
toms of insensibility have come on without vomiting, empty the 
stomach with any emetic that may be at hand, and after the operation 
of the emetic, give a sharp purgative. After as much as is possible of 
the poison is got rid of, very strong black coffee, or vinegar- diluted 
with water, may be given with advantage. Camphor mixture with a 
little ether may be frequently given, and if insensibility is consider- 
able, warmth and frictions may be employed. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOE ALL. 



119 



Rules to Administer Medicines* 



Suppose the dose for an adult to be one drachm : 

A child under 1 year will require but one-twelfth, or 5 

one-eighth, or 8 
one-sixth, or 10 
one-quarter, or 15 



2 


years ' 


" 3 years ' 


4 


years ' 


" 7 


years ' 


13 


years 


20 


vears ' 



one-third, or 
one-half, or 
two-thirds, or 



A person above 21 years, the full dose of one drachm. 

A person of 75, the inverse gradation of the above. 
This is an excellent table for regulating the doses of 
A mixture, powder, pill, or draught, may be proportioned 
bv attention to the above rules. 



grains ; 
grains ; 
grains ; 
grains ; 
scruple ; 
drachm ; 
scruples 



medicines, 
to a nicety 



To Measure Medicine instead of Weighing. 

A drachm of any substance that is near the weight of water, will 
fill a common teaspoon level full. Four teaspoonfuls make a table- 
spoonful, or one-half of an ounce. Two tablespoonfuis, an ounce, and 
so on. On the same principle, one-third of a teaspoonful will be one 
scruple, or twenty grains in weight. 



Doses Varied According to Age. 

The doses of medicines recommended for an adult, or grown per- 
son, may be varied to the age of the patient, according to the follow- 
ing rule : 

Two-thirds of the dose for' a person from fourteen to sixteen ; 
One-half " " seven to ten ; 

One-third " " four to six; 

One-fourth " " three years old ; 

One-eighth Ct " one year old. 



120 PEAELS OF WISDOM, 



LIQUID MEASURE. 

A tablespoonful contains half an ounce ; 

A pint " sixteen ounces ; 

A teacup one gill ; 

A wineglass " two ounces ; 

A teaspoonful sixty drops ; 

Four teaspoonfuls are equal to one tablespoonful. 



DRY MEASURE. 

A tablespoonful contains four drachms, or half an ounce ; 
A teaspoonful " one drachm ; 

A teaspoonful sixty grains. 



DOSES OF MEDICINE. 

The following scale has been established for the regulation of the 
doses of medicine in general. 

If the dose for a person of middle age be one drachm, the dose for 
one from fourteen to twenty-one years of age will be two scruples, or 
two-thirds as much. 

From seven to fourteen, half a drachm, or one-half. 

From four to seven, one scruple, or one-third. 

The dose for a child of four years will be fifteen grains, or one- 
quarter. 

For a child three years old, ten grains, or half a scruple. 

For one two years old, eight grains. 

For one a year old, five grains, or one-twelfth as much as for a 
person of middle age. 

Women, in general, require smaller doses than men, owing to a 
difference in size and constitution. 

Since the Fluid Extracts and Specific Tinctures have been intro- 
duced, of course the doses are all much smaller than the above table, 
but they are of the same ratio as the above scale. 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 121 



General Remarks, 



The reader of our little book will see that we have not gone into 
any description whatever of medicinal plants — as is usually done in 
all other domestic niedical works — for the reason you will see more 
fully explained in an article on the Progress of Medicine, given at the 
close of our book, which we desire 3 r ou to read over carefully. But, 
instead, we have given you our Prescriptions, just as we would write 
you one should you come to see us in person, and send you to the 
drug store to get the fluid extracts and mother tinctures which are 
now made from the roots and herbs gathered in their proper season. 
The sciences of Botany and Chemistry have taught us how to extract 
the active medicinal principles from these plants ; therefore the man- 
ufacturing scientists, who are responsible parties, have now men of 
science and experience constantly employed gathering these medicinal 
plants from all over the country, the result of which is that, within 
the last three or four years, the scientific pharmacies have given to the 
world a universal standard strength from the active medicinal princi- 
f the medicinal plants. This is a great achievement, a triumph 
which we have never known before. This fact gives to the physician, 
as well as to the common people, the advantage of procuring, at any 
oi the first-class druggists, a pure article of the active principle of any 
kind of drug which we want. Xo matter where obtained, you can re- 
ly upon it as a universal standard of strength. These drugs are in the 
shape of fluid extracts, specific tinctures, the sulphates, resinoids, and 
alcoloids. 

This is very desirable from the fact that it makes the dose so small 
and so much more agreeable to the taste, the dose now being only 
drops and grains and fractions of a grain, and from a half drachm to 
a drachm, and far more reliable in its effect. Those are facts which 
are certainly very desirable for us to know, when we consider that only 
a few years ago, when we were in the night of our ignorance, we had 
to gather the plants regardless of their season, and boil and stew them 
to make teas and decoctions which were of the crude material, and 
pour down the throats of the patients whole teacupfuls, and in many 
cases a pint and over, for a dose of those crude drugs. Then we were 
ignorant of the fact that the stomach and human system have to be 
their own chemical laboratory, out of which this pint dose of medicine 

11 



122 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

after a great deal of labor on the part of the stomach, could only ex- 
tract about half a drop of the active principle of the drug, the balance 
being wholly waste material that the human system must labor to get 
rid of. 

Hence our little book is a timely messenger — Pearls of Wisdom, 
Gems of Knowledge — that you all may know that you need not. must 
not, buy any more roots and herbs at a drug store, thinking to make 
your own medicine, for you can't do it ; besides, many of these crude 
drugs have been lying in the stores for years, all worm-eaten and 
dusty, and as worthless as a handful of chips gathered from an old 
wood-pile, while the active principles of the drug made from the green 
root gathered in its proper season and manufactured into fluid extract, 
tincture, etc., will keep for years in well stopped bottles, at the end of 
which time they are perfectly safe and reliable. Hence you can see 
that if we have a universal standard of strength agreed upon by the sci- 
entific pharmacists, then we are safe, since the only competition will 
consist in the different manufacturing houses to see which can outdo 
the other in furnishing to the world from this agreed standard of 
strength a purer article of drugs, more palatable, and therefore more 
desirable. 

This, dear reader, is the reason that we have said nothing about 
the medicinal plants in our book. This is the reason that we have 
given you our Prescriptions as we have, and directed you to go to your 
druggist to have them filled. The cost of these prescriptions in many 
instances will be much higher than the medicine used to cost you, on 
account of their purity. However, what you pay now in the cost of 
your medicines you will more than save in the quality, as much less 
in quantity is now required. 



The History and Origin of Medicine. 



Medicine is, no doubt, coeval with ]the history of human suffer- 
ing, but as a profession, it first began in the early accounts given of the 
Egyptians. The priests of the early nations were the practitioners of 
the healing art, but from all accounts they were exceedingly empirical, 
making use of but few remedies, the most of which were external 
applications, together with incantations and ceremonies to affect the 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 123 

imagination, though their efficiency in curing disease was, for the most 
part, due to their knowledge of a few medicinal principles. 

Hippocrates was the first to arrange the principles of medicine 
into an attempted science, while Aesculapius first made it an exclusive 
study and practice. Aesculapius flourished about twelve hundred and 
fifty years before Christ ; his two sons became celebrated as surgeons 
in the Greek armies during the Trojan war. 

Fifty years after the destruction of Troy, a temple was built in 
honor to Aesculapius, who was then worshiped as one of the gods. 

The worship of this god soon spread throughout all Greece and 
passed into Asia, Africa and Italy, so that multitudes of temples were 
■erected in honor to his name, and in which he was worshiped. 

These temples were erected in the midst of the most delightful 
scenery, and statutes of colossal proportions were erected to represent 
the god of medicine. 

Pythagoras first introduced the practice of visiting patients at their 
homes : i 500, years B. C.) He rejected all theories in medicine, and con- 
tended that experience was the only safe guide to a successful prac- 
tice. 

About three hundred years before Christ, Ptolemy founded a 
medical school in Alexandria in Egypt, and among the Ptolemies the 
most celebrated were Erasistratus and Herophilus, who were the first 
to dissect the dead. These men opposed blood-letting and the use of 
.all violent remedies and trusted to nature in the cure of disease. They 
paid particular attention to the action of the heart, and were the first 
to observe the pulse and its variations. 

The Pythagoreans became the dominant school, partly through 
the earnest efforts of Hippocrates (430 years B. C.) who opened up an 
earnest warfare upon the superstitious ceremonies of the Aesculapian 
priest-, though he, in his practice, still adhered to bleeding and purg- 
ing. 

Three hun ired and twenty years before Christ, the Alexandrian 
library was formed, which had a happy effect upon the departments 
of medicine, anatomy and physiology. In this library there were 
600,00 - or rolls which contained ail the valuable information 

of previo is ages. 

One hundred anil thirty years after Christ, Galen was born in 
Pergamos, and 500 years after his birth, the Alexandrian library was 
burned by Caliph Omar. Galen had access to this library ; he trav- 
eled much and wivce largely on subjects connected with medicine. 
He was an independent thinker and paid but little heed to what was 
then called authority. So great was his learning and wisdom that he 



124 PEARLS OF WISDOM; 

obtained the reputation of " cracle." He thoroughly studied all the 
schools of medicine and philosophy, and then selected from all, except 
from the Epicurians, which he totally rejected. Galen determined to 
gather from the various sources all that was useful in the treatment of 
disease. He was, perhaps, the first " eclectic " in the practice of med- 
icine. 

From the twelfth to the fifteenth century, the practice of medi- 
cine was again confined chiefly to the priests, who were men of learn- 
ing and who became the principal physicians. 

About this time an attempt to investigation was made by a class 
of men who seemed to think that, while physical science was making 
some gigantic strides, there was no reason why medical science should 
be so comparatively slow, but a large majority believed that no pro- 
gress was possible and hence, to shield their ignorance, they attacked 
every species of investigation in the most vehement manner, which 
in the least conflicted with their narrow and illiberal views. 

In 1628, Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood, for which 
he was called the " circulator " in derision- He was deprived of the 
right to practice medicine, and was threatened with banishment. He 
was finally compelled to leave his native country, to escape the oblo- 
quy heaped upon him, and he finally died without seeing the benefits 
of his investigations. 

In 1638, the wife of an ex-king of Peru was persuaded, while suf- 
fering with a malarial fever, to 'try the cinchona, and was afterwards 
restored to health. Ten years after, a Jesuit endeavored to introduce 
the Peruvian bark in Europe, and he was denounced as a quack, and 
the common people were persuaded to believe that the bark created 
disease instead of curing it. 

PRESENT MEDICAL SCHOOLS. 

The different philosophies of ancient times have given rise to dif- 
ferent theories, and hence in our times we have different medical 
schools, each of which base their practice upon the peculiar philoso- 
phy they have adopted. It will not be out of place now to give a short 
description of the peculiar features of the medical schools of the pres- 
ent da}\ Of these, we have the Allopathic, Homeopathic, and Eclec- 
tic as the chief, while there are some minor schools, as the Botanic 
&nd Hydropathic. 

THE ALLOPATHIC SCHOOL. 

This school of medicine comprises a large class of the physicians 
of the present day. They are known among the common people as 
"old school doctors," "mineral doctors," "calomel doctors," "alio- 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOE ALL. 125 

paths," and ''regulars." They are justly entitled to the term "old 
school," for their present treatment does not materially differ from 
that of Hyppocrates, who flourished twenty-two centuries ago. 

They base their theory of practice upon the Latin maxim, " Con- 
traria Contrarius Curanter," which implies that disease must be cured 
by antagonism — that if a person has a disease, another disease should 
be set up in the system, contrary to the one already there, and in this 
way they attempt to modify diseased conditions. For this, they fre- 
quently gave calomel to salivate the system, and by this salivation 
they expected to counteract the already existing disease. Later years, 
however, many of this school have modified their views upon this sub- 
ject, and hence they endeavor to avoid the force of their Latin motto. 

Though at first they gloried in the name of Allopathic, many of 
them now despise the name, on account of the force of its meaning 
i Allopathic is from the Greek, alios — other, and pathos — disease ; other 
disease), and hence they choose to be known by the somewhat exclu- 
sive title of " regulars." 

While there is a modification in these respects, there is a disposi- 
tion to adhere to the old landmarks, and hence the philosophy re- 
mains the same ; but their practice seems to be gradually leaving the 
old paths. The Allopathic profession of to-day is not what it was forty 
years ago in many respects. A very large class of this school are in 
favor of progress and improvement, and in keeping up with the times, 
while others seem to think profession should be stereotyped into a 
general routine. 

This school gives medicine in sensible doses and pays but little at- 
tention to the taste. Their medicines for the most part are drastic and 
powerful, on which account much objection has been raised by the 
weakly and delicate. 

BOTANICAL SCHOOL. 

It will be needless to say much here concerning this system of 
.practice, as it is now almost extinct. The physicians of this school are 
known as " vegetable doctors," " root doctors," "herb doctors," "In- 
dian doctors," " steam doctors," "botanies," "Thompsonians," and, 
of later times, " physiopaths" Dr. Thompson started out with an ut- 
ter disgust for the old methods of practice. He inveighed against the 
use of minerals, and chose the vegetable kingdom as his field for med- 
icinal agents. Some good has been accomplished by Thompson and 
his followers, but the system never rose from its nudity. Thompson 
himself was quite illiterate, and the system was crude and could not 
bear the tests of a sound philosophy. Its method of curing disease 



126 PEAELS OF WISDOM, 

was by severe drenching, with hot and nauseating teas, made from the 
common roots and herbs. The system never arose to a very high state 
of respectability, which, in part, was owing to its prescriptive princi- 
ples and its severe method of treating disease. 

HOME OP A THIC SCHO OL . 

Owing much to the objectionable features in Allopathy, a new sys- 
tem arose upon a philosophy advocated by Hahneman, the Latin term 
of which is " Similia Similihus Curanter." by which they mean that 
medicines which produce upon the healthy subject certain diseased 
conditions, are also capable of curing similar diseases as they arise 
spontaneously. They claim that "the medicine sets up in the suffer- 
ing part of the organization an artificial, but somewhat stronger, dis- 
ease, which, on account of its great similarity and preponderating 
influence, takes the place of the former, and the organism from that 
time forth is affected only by the artificial complaint. This, from the 
minute doses of medicine, soon subsides and leaves the patient alto- 
gether free from disease." 

A person in reading this might suppose that the differences between 
the above two schools were but slight; Tmt there is a vast difference 
and a great gulf fixed between them. The Allopath would think it 
beneath his dignity to counsel with a Homeopath, and this the Homeo- 
path seems to care but little about, while he flatters himself to be the 
most successful of the two. 

The minute doses of medicine in the Homeopathic practice are 
made by diluting or attenuating their drugs in a systematic way so as 
to decrease their potency in a geometrical manner. Their medicines 
do not differ from the Allopathic so much in kind as they do in amount 
and manner of preparing. They aim to please the palate, which is 
certainly a commendable feature, when it can be done without sacri- 
ficing the disease for the taste. For instance, where the Allopath 
would give ten grains of calomel, the Homeopath would take but one 
grain of the drug, and to this he would add sugar of milk and make a 
thousand doses. He sometimes gives a millionth or a quintillionth 
part of a grain or drop. Here, then, is a great difference. Their 
method of trituration is to take one grain of medicine and mix it with 
ninety-nine grains of sugar of milk ; this is put into a bottle and 
marked one hundredth. To prepare the second degree, one grain of 
the one hundredth is triturated with ninety-nine grains of sugar of 
milk, and this constitutes the one ten-thousanth. The third potency 
is formed by taking one grain of the one ten-thousandth and triturating 
with ninety-nine grains of sugar of milk, which constitutes one mil- 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 127 

lionth. These are called first, second and third potencies. Thus they 
continue, always taking one grain of the last trituration and mixing it 
with ninety-nine grains of sugar of milk, until they get down to the 
five-thousandth potency. The liquids or tinctures are treated in a 
similar manner, though drops are used instead of grains, and alcohol 
is used instead of sugar of milk. 

There is much difference of opinion among the homeopaths in the 
use of their potencies. Some use the 1st, 2d and 3d potencies, while- 
others practice with their 30th, and others contend for the 200th, while 
a fourth class declare better results in the use of the 500th. 

While some things in homeopathy may appear quite vague and 
ethereal, as a general thing there is to be found quite a liberal and 
progressive spirit amongst them, and hence they have a wide range of 
medicinal agents, and some of the late discoveries in medicine are due 
to the progressive spirit of homeopathy. 

There is no denying the fact that too much strong medicine has 
been used in former days, and we should hail with delight that spirit 
which has for its object the improvement of medical science. 

ECLECTIC SCHOOL. 

TVe cannot describe this school any better than Dr. Yankin of St. 
Louis, has. He says : 

;: The Eclectics are becoming quite a popular class of medical prac- 
titioners. They have at this day a bright galaxy of scholars, philoso- 
phers and philanthropists, who are devoting themselves with Zealand 
industry worthy of all praise to the study and practice of medicine and 
surgery. Their colleges of learning are becoming somewhat numer- 
ous, and their written volumes on the different branches of medical 
science, adorn the libraries of almost all physicians of the different 
schools. Theirs is a science made up by an inductive system of reas- 
oning. They have added to their store-house of knowledge, by an 
earnest study of all the various systems, and selecting such agents as 
have been proven good and useful in whatever school they could be 
found. In taking their survey, they saw much to be condemned and 
much to be commended in all the schools of medicine, hence they 
chose to found a new basis of medical practice in which should be in- 
corporated the good of all schools, while the bad should be rejected. 
They belong to the progressive class, and claim that none should be 
so bound up in theories as not to receive truth wherever found, 

whether 

'In christmn lands or on heathen ground,.' 

They combine the sweetness of homeopathy with all that is good 
in allopathy, hydropathy, or botanic practice, as well as many discov- 



128 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

eries of their own. Their progress for the last fifteen years has been 
surprisingly great, so much so that even their old standard authors 
are claimed to be behind the times. Their present mode of treating 
disease is very nearly as pleasant as in homeopathy, and they claim 
that the power of their agents will reach the disease more readily, and 
cure the patient in a much shorter time than either of the two former 
schools. The per cent, or death-rate is claimed not to be as great as 
found in the statistics of other schools. 

On account of the sound of the word eclectic, some of the com- 
mon people have thought that it had something to do with electricity, 
but this is not the case. They use electricity as they use any other 
agent, but they do not use it as their exclusive right. Eclectic means 
select. They aim to select the best of all. 

The medicines they employ in the treatment of disease, are such 
agents as will restore the healthy action of all the organs of the human 
body. They endeavor to avoid the violent and irritating drugs, be- 
lieving that they tend to produce disease and prostrate the system. 
They seek to support the system and not to depress it. They nourish 
their patients instead of starving them. They aim to restore the 
healthy action of the liver, kidneys, stomach, and intestines, by as- 
sisting nature to throw off diseased action. 

Eclecticism has for its basis the laws of physiology and hygiene. 
It enjoins upon its practitioners a careful study of all the functions of 
the body, and teaches that disease is a departure from healthy action, 
produced either by "excess, defect or perversion." 

To relieve a patient from disease, they teach that the first thing is 
to know what the symptoms are, and their cause ; secondly, to have 
a thorough knowledge of the effects of remedies, and just what drug 
is specially indicated in the individual case ; the latter of which is ob- 
tained by a thorough study of all the materia medica taught by the 
different schools of medicine. 

They use counter irritants, but they seldom blister ; they use 
opiates to relieve pain, but they do not depend upon them as means 
of cure ; they use but few drugs that cannot be readily eliminated 
from the system. 

We have no doubt but that there has been more progress in med- 
ical science within the last ten years than within the last hundred 
years. More especially has this been in the direction of furnishing to 
the world a purer article of medicines — fluid extracts, specific tinc- 
tures, resinoids, alcaloids, etc, the active principles from all medicinal 
substances — and with it has come to us a better knowledge of how to 
employ them than was ever known before. Therefore, it will be ap- 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 129 

propriate ior us to note the fact, first, that in all domestic medical 
books for the use of families, the crude remedies, roots and herbs, pre- 
pared in decoctions, or teas, have been recommended, to which we 
have serious objections, which we will proceed to explain and make 
plain to our readers. 

Through the aid of chemical science, we have learned that the 
medicinal properties of a plant, which of course means to any part of the 
plant which is to be used, depends entirely upon the time in the sea- 
son — we mean the time in the year — when it is gathered, when it is 
known by experience the healing properties are best. Then, again, 
the healing properties are subjected to the contingencies of the season. 
We will endeavor to illustrate our meaning. If, for instance, the best 
time for gathering a plant is in the month of September, then this state- 
ment is made in the sense that the season has been of the most favora- 
ble condition for producing the healthiest properties of the plant (for 
plants can be sickly, you know), for if the season has been more dry 
than usual, or more wet than common, it will be perceived at a glance 
that the remedy gathered one year will be of an entirely different 
strength than the same remedy gathered in another year, or in a dif- 
ferent locality, country and soil. Hence they cannot be made relia- 
ble if you should make them into decoctions or teas. Therefore, it 
has been the aim of our great modern chemists and observers and 
pioneers to give to the world a system of remedial agents that will be 
uniform ; that is, all manufacturers shall give to the world the solid 
or fluid extracts, specific tinctures, resinoids and alcaloids all of equal 
strength, and at all times, which can be relied upon ; that if the dose 
of the remedy be that of ten drops to produce its medicinal effect, that 
it will be the same all over the world ; also, that the same dose shall 
produce the medicinal effect next year as it did this year. Hence, our 
experience and our confidence has led us to rely upon the tinctures, 
fluid extracts, alcaloids, etc., etc., which the leading manfacturers in 
the United States have furnished us. Our manufacturers of these 
botanical remedies have carried off the palm of excellence and supe- 
riority everywhere that they have been placed in competition with 
the celebrated manufacturers of Europe at all the- great international 
exhibitions of our day. 

These are the reasons why we have advised you all through our 
book to get your druggist to fill your prescriptions for you. Copy 
them off, or, better still, take your book to the druggist and show him 
which prescription you want filled, then you need fear no mistake. 
In this sense our book is new and in its style entirely original with our- 
selves. Therefore we commend this reasoning to the common sense 
and good judgment of our readers- 



130 PEAKLS OF WISDOM, 

In the early days of medical progress in this country, the eminent 
Dr. Warren, who founded the first Alopathic college in the city of 
Boston, in one of his medical books, in the most beautiful language has 
paid the highest tribute to the Eclectic school of medicine that we 
have ever heard. We feel that our little book would not be complete 
without giving you some extracts' taken from his book, which was 
published in 1858. He says : 

" There is a large and growing class of physicians, called at first, 
after the founder of the school, Thomsonian. Subsequently they were 
known as the Botanic physicians, and now pass under the title of 
Eclectics. These men, directing their attention at first chiefly to the 
Cayenne" and the Lobelia, have greatly extended their zealous re- 
searches over the vegetable kingdom, and have gathered much inform- 
ation worthy to be preserved. These researches have revealed a sadly 
neglected duty on the part of the old school practitioners, and in 1852 
drew from the Committee on Indigenous Medicinal Botany, appointed 
by the American Medical Association, the confession that our prac- 
titioners generally have been extremely ignorant of the medicinal 
plants even in their own neighborhoods, and to this fact the commit- 
tee attribute it that the Eclectic physicians had in many cases sup- 
planted ,the Regulars in the confidence of the people. The education 
and talent of this class of practitioners have gradually risen year by 
year, till at the present time they have several medical schools, where 
students are well instructed by men of real ability. The vast list of 
valuable remedies that these men have given to the world, drawn 
wholly from our home plants, are a boon of no small value. I regard 
them as equal in value to all that we were previously in possession of. 
And yet it is very mortifying that the remedies which these men have 
given us are by hundreds of our old school practitioners not even 
known by name, and even where they are known, generally not hon- 
ored with a trial. ' King's American Dispensatory,' a book of 1,300 
pages, in which these plants are well described, is almost unknown 
among us. Aside from a copy in my own library, I do not know that 
one is owned by any other member of the Massachusetts Medical So- 
ciety. However learned a man may be, he is not fully equipped as a 
practitioner without his full acquaintance with this class of med- 
icines." 

[ We will add that this valuable book, King's Dispensatory, is not 
owned nor known much about by one in a hundred old-school practi- 
tioners, even at this late date, 1880.] 

" But all aie .useful in a degree. On the whole, I am disposed to 
regard all the operators and provers in the different departments of 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOE ALL. 131 

medicine as very useful in a degree, no matter to what school they 
belong, or what class of men, except, always, those mercenary quacks 
who lie about their remedies to make money. But each of all those 
sincere and honest men who believe what they teach, is aiding in 
some measure the general advancement of science. Although the 
truths, as they present them, are but fragmentary, they may prove 
useful in the hands of the true, liberal and progressive men who have 
chosen for themselves the name and title of Eclectics, which means all 
those men who have the wisdom as well as the independence to select 
the best things out of all systems of medicine. And that brings us to 
the remark that the general conclusion must be that there is but one 
truly liberal and philosophical school of medicine, and that is the 
Eclectic, composed of that class of thinking men who have liberality 
enough, as well as independence, to reject all and every exclusive sys- 
tem of medicine, and receive out of all systems only those things 
which are approved by experience and reason. 



PROGRESS OF MEDICINE. 

There have been long periods when the science and art of healing 
made scarcely any progress ; but now they are advancing, and in some 
departments quite fast. The chemistry in man — commonly called an- 
imal chemistry — has opened up many sources of light which in the 
past were unknown. And but very few physicians have yet com- 
menced the study of these very essential branches of medical science ; 
but the delinquents are but sleeping in the rear of this rapid advance, 
and will soon awaken to find themselves among the ghosts of a dead 
generation. 

Liebig, a distinguished student in chemistry, has made many very 
valuable discoveries to open the way for inquiry into this department. 
Simons, also, has perhaps done more. Mealhe is exploring still 
deeper, and has made valuable discoveries, of which the students 
in medicine will have these problems before their minds, bye and bye, 
and they will be compelled to answer them and govern their actions 
upon them as well — inquiries and propositions like the following : 

What are the chemical compositions of the solids and fluids of the 
human body ? 

What is the nature of the changes which occur in the composition 
of the solids and fluids during disease ? 

What alterations in the chemical compositions of the solids and 
fluids take place during the operations of medicine before it can exert 
any remote action on the animal economy ? 



132 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

A remedy must be absorbed, and before it can be absorbed, ti 
must be soluble in the fluids of the human body. 

Medicines are subject to chemical changes during their passage 
through the system. 

Those changes are regulated by ordinary chemical law, and may, 
therefore, to some extent, be protected and made available in the cure 
of disease. And then, again, those laws are disturbed and varied to 
some extent by the law of vitality ; just as the needle is disturbed and 
made to vary by disturbing forces. 

What are those disturbances, and to what extent and under what 
■circumstances do they occur ? With those and similar inquiries and 
propositions before the intelligent physician's mind, diligently studied, 
the physician will learn, in time, to prescribe with some intelligent 
aim. 

He will not know everything, to be sure, but what he does know, 
he will have a rational reason for knowing. 

If he gives a medicine with these facts before him, he will have 
in view the chemical changes of the solids and fluids of the body 
known to be disturbed by disease, which he is trying to combat. 

He will, at the same time, try to keep in mind the solution of 
medicine in the fluids of the body, as well as the chemical reactions 
between the component parts and the acids and alkalies, etc., found 
in the alimentary tubes and elsewhere. 

As the science of medicine advances and becomes progressive in 
its march and eclectic in its character, gathering from all systems the 
best attested facts, and learning to use them to the exclusion of all 
systems of mere theories, and liberal sufficient only to hold the pres- 
ent facts in subordination to future experience, then, and not till then, 
will the medical profession be progressive. With such men as these, 
the science of medicine will advance, and the light of to-morrow will 
then be modified by the light of to-day. Such men as these will every- 
where be found knocking at the door for admission into some new 
department of Nature. 



NEED OF LIBERALITY. 

The medical profession, to be real physicians, must be free from 
bigotry ; they must have no narrow prejudice against any man or class 
of men, but be always ready to examine carefully and candidly any 
new remedy that is brought to their notice, from no matter what source 
it may come. They must not hedge themselves about with such restrict- 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 133 

ive by-laws and society rule as are calculated to fetter their thoughts ; 
that will turn their investigations by a sort of moral necessity into the 
narrow channels of mere party CDnservatism. 

Eemember, that he that is once enclosed by such restrictions must 
hew a path for his feet through bigotry and malevolence itself, before he 
can escape them, or be a free man in any noble sense. When the pro- 
fessors of the healing art can hoard medical knowledge as misers hoard 
gold, and can submit its purity to equally certain tests, then it will be 
time and appear in better taste for them to grow exclusive. Until then 
the most becoming badge that they can wear would be that of the 
Christian adage, '"let each esteem others better than himself." 



MEDICAL SCIENCE 



With liberal by-laws, is fitted to do a great deal of good. But it will 
be hard to show that those with stringently restrictive rules can ope- 
rate otherwise than as a check upon progress. In truth, they are apt 
to become mere catacombs in which only to embalm dead ideas of the 
past. They are liable to become the instruments for accomplishing 
the ambition of a few leading, narrow, conservative men with brain- 
less heads, who attempt to suppress everything of a progressive na- 
ture which should happen to be outside of their organization, and 
they beget a feeling like that which would forbid the fixed stars from 
shedding a drop of their light into our atmosphere, without first com- 
ing down and joining the solar system. 



CONSERVATIVE LEADERS. 

There is no influence which holds so steady a check upon medical 
progress as those conservative leaders in many of our medical associa- 
tions ; not that they are opposed to any improvement in medical art, 
nor would they object to any amount of discovery if it would only 
come to the profession through channels which they have the honor 
of opening, but against all light from outside or from obscure sources 
they will draw down the curtain and close the doors ; and if it should 
chance to get within their sacred enclosure, they will call it darkness, 
and the priests of the temple to atone for the indignity offered to the 
gods of medicine, and fill the whole sky with murky clouds from their 
altars. Those men have strong faith in cast ; therefore, in low places 

12 



134 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

of society, they look for nothing but ignorance and poverty, notwith- 
standing the light of every natural day breaks in the horizon and 
ascends. They so far despise analogies as to insist that all medical 
light breaks at what they call the zenith of the profession, and conies 
down. With them the temples of Esculapius are all rebuilt and they 
are the priests, and, therefore, to offer in sacrifice the smallest part of 
a medical plant is sacrilege, unless it be intrusted to their hands. Those 
are the men who regard knowledge as a contraband article, unless 
regularly entered at the custom nouse, with bills of lading properly 
certified to by the conservative magnates at some other metropolis. 
With them knowledge is not like the west wind, fanning the brow of 
the peasant as gently as that of a king ; not like the bright light of 
heaven, entering the small, clean window of the hut as readily as the 
large one of the palace ; not as a boon, which comes alike freely to all ; 
and which is to be everywhere amplified, changed as circumstances 
and conditions require, and adapted to the present hour. We would 
not be unjust or severe, but we cannot but remark further, that these 
men present but one view to humanity— they are monotonous objects 
of inspection. Look at them a thousand times, and you see but the 
same unaltered phase of life. 

And to the mariner on life's ocean they are not safe lights to go 
by, for if he approaches them on the dark side they remain just as 
black as night, unless he should come around to their shining front. 
They are not revolving lights ; they have lights, to be sure, and may 
be bright and genial, but it only gleams out upon the waters in one 
direction ; it does not sweep around and throw its direct rays upon 
every mariner's path. Such men as these can only be useful to a few 
and a certain class. They have in them no true omniology ; they are 
not all-teaching ; their lives are not all-instructive, only to their friends, 
their clique or party, or school. They have length, but not breadth. 
They are citizens of Boston, New York, Philadelphia or Cincinnati ; 
but not of the world. 



THE TRUE PHYSICIAN. 

How different the character of a true man or a physician. He has 
no dislikes or antipathies and hates no man except bigots and tyrants. 
He accepts knowledge although it comes from the humblest of 
sources ; believes that there is no experience but that will repay a 
careful study of it. He believes that there is no husbandry's plow- 
share but that will turn up soil that is worth the analyzing. He be- 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 135 

longs exclusively to no party, and he can be easily approached by re- 
spectable men of every stamp, whether belonging to the same party 
or school, or society with him or not. You can easily take hold of his 
nature and draw it out without having it slip from your fingers and 
fly back from your presence into a thousand kinks, just like an over- 
twisted string. He is a whole man. God made him for the whole 
world and not for a party. But by some strong influence you may 
draw him from the world for a time into some narrow sphere, but not 
only will his reluctant nature, like a returning tide, run back continu- 
edly to embrace the continent, and, like a full sea, come back boiling 
and bubbling and running all over. 



WHAT WE WANT. 

In order that medical knowledge may increase its liberality in the 
true and full sense, we want true men in high places, who will not 
only let their own light shine everywhere, but will cease to hinder 
other men's light from shining. Beyond this, and of equal importance 
with it, we want the medical Pearls of Wisdom and Gems of Knowl- 
edge diffused among the people ; we want what the world has never 
seen before — a popular medical literature. We want the Temple of 
Esculapius pulled down and these conservative priests turned into the 
street to become teachers of the multitude, rather than the worship- 
pers of the inner sanctuary. We do not think it necessary to confine 
knowledge, save in the ministers of religion. Why should not the 
layman, who follows his plow or shoves the plane, become eminent 
theologians ? And why should they not study the lower branches of 
science which relate to the body ? They have never done it heretofore 
just because it has been purposely hidden from them under technic- 
alities, when those covers should have been torn from them. And they 
will be in the very near future, for when men and women are educated 
properly, as they should be and must be, how the physical temple can 
bo built, then taught how they should take care of it as well, then the 
soul will need but very little doctoring to save it. It is said those who 
begin to read upon medicine are very apt to imagine themselves 
afflicted with the various symptoms that they find described. Well, 
to some extent, they may. But it is also true that the light they ob- 
tain by reading very often relieves their minds of the apprehension 
which their previous ignorance allowed to prey upon them, just as 
boys lose their fears of ghosts, when the light of the coming morn 
changes their thoughts to some familiar object. But those conserva 



136 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

tive physicians oppose the spread of medical knowledge; they fear 
that their services will be less required — I fear upon the grounds of 
self interest- They think that their services will be less sought for. 

Now, we do 'not think of dispensing with the clergy because the 
people study theology ; neither do we cease to employ teachers and 
practitioners of medicine when each man and woman will study the 
healing art. The principal change we shall witness in the future will 
be much larger attainments in knowledge among practitioners, just as 
ministers now know, and are obliged to know, just ten times as much 
as they did know in the dark ages of the past, when the people had no 
education and were obliged to receive their spiritual teaching from the 
mouths of those old fossils. The teachers of any art or science are 
obliged to keep in advance of their pupils. Just let the study of medi- 
cine become a popular study among the people, and then we will have 
very few ignorant physicians as we do now. Quacks will then become 
one of the impossibilities. The eclectic and the homeopathic as well 
as all true physicians believe in scattering medical books among the 
people, stripped of their technicalities. 

Diffuse the Pearls of Wisdom and the Gems of Knowledge, and 
you will find that the people will purchase very few of the secret ad- 
vertised medicines, nor employ quacks as their family physicians. 



Hygiene, 



Hygiene differs from medicine, but boars a close relationship to 
it. Hygiene prevents disease, and medicine cures disease. Hygiene 
bears a close connection to physiology, which teaches the laws of life 
and health ; to chemistry, which reveals the nature of poisons, whether 
taken in the air we breathe, the food we eat, or the fluids we drink. 
Hygiene aims to discover the cause of disease and death, and the 
means of averting or altering these causes so as to prevent these ca- 
lamities. To do this it classifies the factors of life under air, food, 

WATER, and HEAT. 

There can be no animal life without air. The smallest insect 
needs a supply of oxygen gas. This it must draw from the atmos- 
phere, and when once obtained, it produces its chemical changes in 
the interior of the insect. Each living cell of which its body is com- 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOK ALL. 137 

posed, contributes to the aggregate of its life, only as it is acted upon 
by the oxygen received. It is this fact that lies at the foundation of 
a thousand enquiries in regard to the ventilation of dwellings, work- 
shops, churches, etc. ; indeed, of ail places where there are living be- 
ings. By this great fact we are enabled to explain a large per cent, of 
disease and death, and tiie more this is studied and heeded, the more 
will longevity be promoted, and the health of cities and communities 
enhanced. But we are also to remember, that the air we breathe not 
only supplies us with oxygen, but it is the great repository of all the 
exhalants from the earth and decayed animal and vegetable matter. 
It comes to us sometimes loaded with poisons. Being absorbed into 
the blood, they work their destructive action on the body, damaging 
the functions of life, and often destroying the existence altogether. 

Water is another factor of organic life. Without it, no chemical 
change can take place in the living body- Water enters into all the 
composition of organized beings. A man that weighs 150 pounds, 
contains 111 pounds of water in his tissues. All the solid materials 
of the body are carried to their places by the agency of water. All 
the higher animals drink water for this very purpose ; and the adult 
human being takes, upon an average, from seventy to eighty ounces of 
water daily. Water is a most potent chemical agent; its solvent pow- 
er is equal to that of the mineral acids, and it associates itself with a 
vast number of compounds. It dissolves both organic and inorganic 
matter ; but it may become so impregnated with poisonous substances 
as to unfit it for the purposes of life. 

But the human body requires varied compounds of carbon, hy- 
drogen, oxygen and nitrogen in the shape of food. Air and water, of 
themselves, though they fill an important place in the economy of life, 
cannot supply the system with elements necessary for the play of 
chemical forces which result in vital nhenomena. The blood must be 
supplied with chloride and sulphate of lime, the muscles must have pot- 
ash, the bile must have sulphur, the saliva cyanogen, the nerves phos- 
phorus, the hair, teeth and nails must have silica. If the diet is defi- 
cient, disease will invade the system most certainly. Armies have 
been starved on an excessive diet of salt beef. Children have been 
sacrificed by a confinement to starchy food. The human body may 
have too much of one thing and not enough of another. What then 
is a healthy diet ? We answer, such diet as contains the constituents o 
the human body. Science and instinct both answer this question. They 
reach the same goal, and, in this connection, comes up the question of 
nervous stimulants as tea, coffee, tobacco, opium and alcoholic drinks, 
for which we have no space in this little volume. Suffice it to say, 
they are not necessary except as medicines. 



138 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

Heat is one of the factors of life. Air, food, and water generate 
the heat of the body. Civilized man has instituted artificial heat, 
which, to a great degree, compensates for the lack of food. The sav- 
age and the animal may live without artificial heat by a ready supply 
of air, food and water. There is no life where the temperature never 
rises above 32 degrees F. A little above this, we find only plants and 
animals of the feeblest vitality. As we ascend the scale, we find ani- 
mals and birds so constituted as to maintain their own temperature by 
supplies of food. If man's food is scant, he heaps on clothing ; if his 
dwelling is warm, he requires less food and clothing. 



Philosophy of Human Magnetism. 



This is a very common superstition among popular medical men 
of all schools, that the intellectual phenomena of Magnetism (or Mes- 
merism) are the concomitants of hysterical states of the nervous sys- 
tem. Old-line doctors attempt to transcend the otherwise insurmount- 
able difficulties of Somnambulism, or Clairvoyance, by the assumption 
of imposture, or else by charging the mental manifestation to nervous 
or cataleptic condition of body and brain. But, however, it is pretty 
generally believed that the majority of those old-line physicians are 
pretty well supplied with ignorance concerning many of the most 
vital processes of the physical organization. But chemistry has re- 
cently enriched the physicians' understanding of physiological phe- 
nomena, but chemistry does not unravel to his mind the wondrous 
dynamic of the feelings and thinking principles which animate and 
govern the perfect and beautiful organism of man and woman. The 
mental and spiritual phenomena of magnetism are yet new to most 
physicians, and, therefore, we do not expect anything else from them 
than expressions of professional prejudices emphasized by strong 
marks of dogmatic denunciations. But there is here and there a 
broad-hearted and knowledge-loving physician who is capable of put- 
ting a rational question with an honest incredulity, and who, conse- 
quently, is ever ready to exchange his learned errors for new truths — is 
willing to make progress in scientific facts, and thus unfurl the union 
banner of free thought and unlimited investigation. But in this little 
explanation it can hardly be expected of us to construct an argument 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 139 

for the establishment of electro-magnetic science ; but we can scarcely 
believe that such an argument is demanded by the so-called scientists 
of the age, and yet we know that no class is more in the rear of ad- 
vanced discovery than the graduates of our institutions of learning. 
Many of our best students in medicine are unable to solve the first 
group of magnetic phenomena. They treat the facts as obviously in- 
credible and impossible, and so permit themselves to be sufficiently 
logical to reject the facts, and sometimes uncivil enough to insult the 
hewers of wood and drawers of water, who have the audacity to pre- 
sent such phenomena for scientific examination. In fact, the colleges 
and churches are both behind the essentials of knowledge and civil- 
ization. The unscientific people, the non-professional observers of na- 
ture, and the clear-eyed matronly nurse of the sick-room, are the 
unconscious champions of scientific progress. 

After these, like a loaded omnibus behind the laboring horses, 
come the respectable hosts of physicians and clergymen riding and 
enjoying themselves luxuriously in the cushioned chairs of our col- 
leges and evangelical institutions. Millions upon millions of human 
beings, as well as creatures of the lower grade of animation, breathe 
the breath of life all unconcious of science, unmindful of the chemical 
knowledge which would explain the composition of the atmosphere,and 
reveal the proportions of oxygen and nitrogen to the thoughtless mul- 
titude. So it is in every other respect. The people intuitively illus- 
trate the essential facts of science for centuries in advance of the ac- 
curate knowledge of the schools. In human magnetism, this remark is 
emphatically true. The people with little or no education are familiar 
with its essential facts, and have practiced the principles of this science 
long eras before the colleges reflect a single rav of light upon the sub- 
ject. In fact, the people, on the contrary, without education, are mas- 
ters of realities and principles not yet dreamed of in the brains of our 
teachers and professors. For, in truth, what is science? Nothing more 
nor less than systematic observation and orderly arrangement of those 
natural facts and superficial causes which have for hundreds of cen- 
turies been common and familiar to some of the inhabitants of every 
country. It is, therefore, no disadvantage to any experience or phil- 
osphy to say that it is not yet accepted and inculcated by talented men 
in high places, because we know that the knowledge of the colleges 
and of the theology of the churches are but reflections of the facts and 
discoveries of the past ages. 



140 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 



WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF MAGNETISM ? 

Or, in other words, what is Magnetism? We answer, that it is animal 
vitality. We use the term Magnetism in its broadest sense, signifying 
the principle by which one object is enabled to attract, repel and in- 
fluence another. The source of this grand principle is Soul. Crystals, 
various mineral bodies, plants, trees, fish, birds, animals, human be- 
ings, each and all are endowed with this magnetic principle, because 
each and all are endowed with a soul, which is the mystic life of all 
boundless nature upwelling and overflowing from the inexhaustible 
fountain of the First Cause. All students who are intellectually ac- 
quainted with the harmonial philosophy will not confound " Soul and 
Spirit." The term "Soul" is used here to signify that harmonious 
combination of the principle of motion, life, and sensation, which 
moves, warms and perfects the physical organizations. Stones, trees, 
animals and men all contain this principle, but the latter in a higher 
degree of development, while in the former the principle is compara- 
tively dormant. Each natural body of matter is differently capaci- 
tated ; hence, also, is it differently supplied with a soul principle. 
The consequence of this difference is a magnetic polarity between one 
body and another throughout the entire domain of nature, and the 
consequence of this universal polarity is evolution and manifestation 
of all the physical motions and mental phenomena known or unknown 
to science. 



FACTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF MAGNETIC POLARITY. 

The common magnet, as every one knows, is at once positive and 
negative; that is, the life of the metallic body makes two mani- 
festations at the same moment, and will attract a negative sub- 
stance and repel that which is positive to it. The positive pole is 
charged with negative power, and the negative pole with positive 
power. Thus the magnetic principle corresponds to these facts. For 
instance, the seed of a plant is negative to the magnetic ray or heat 
of the sun ; consequently, tbe properties of the seed, if planted in good 
ground, leap up toward the sun as naturally as the needle points 
to the pole. This explains the growth of vegetables. Thus the near 
relationship of magnetism and electricity is demonstrated; they mu- 
tually attract and mutually repel each other. Look at the common 
electro-magnetic battery. If the electric current is permitted to tra- 






GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 141 

verse the coil of wire, it will convert the rod of iron placed in the cen- 
ter into a powerful magnet, and thus it in its turn will set in motion a 
powerful current of electricity, as it were, by way of compensation. 

Now, the human body is constituted on the same system of polar- 
ities. Man is polarized from side to side, from end to end, from center 
to surface ; his nervous system is a net- work of polarities, from his 
inmost organic centers to the glands of his brain, and from his brain 
centers to the extremities of every nerve ; he is a perfect battery of 
magnetic and electric potence- Hence, you can see how easy it is to 
understand how individuals can affect each other magnetically, and 
assist in establishing a healthy equilibrium in the magnetical polari- 
ties of the human system ; for the entire left side from the brain to 
the toes is negative ; the left side emanations are, therefore, tranquil 
and attractive, while in the right side, which is positive, the emana- 
tions are powerfully repellant. Hence, man repels and works and de- 
stroys with his right side, right arm, right hand, right leg, right foot 
and brain, while with the corresponding parts and members of the left 
side and brain he attracts and subdues, and magnetizes whatever he is 
adapted to affect. 

The right side of the brain is frequently unimpressible, while the 
left side may be easily overcome and paralyzed by the magnetic prin- 
ciple of another mind. The right eye in a healthy person is the keen- 
est and best, while the left eye is capable of more pleasureablc visions. 
The left eye is more susceptible for this reason : it more readily dis- 
cerns the colors of a substance. The location, the size, the weight, 
and the distance of a body are quicker determined by the right eye. 
If any of you doubt this, go and experiment w T ith your eyes and 
senses. Close your left eye and look at the leaf of a plant, then re- 
verse the method, and you will soon begin to see the ray of light em- 
anating from the leaf which your right eye cannot discover. 

In like mannar your left hand will detect heat in a substance that 
is cold to the right hand, and the reverse is equally true when fre- 
quently practiced with care and discrimination. For these reasons 
the right hand of man and woman are attractive to each other, while, 
at the same time the hand of the same sex are mutually repellant and 
unwholesome. Xow clairvoyants can detect the emanations of the 
different centers by the colors, which is natural to all polarized princi- 
ples. Clairvoyants can see the magnetic emanations from human 
bodies when they are in this illuminated state, and such sensitive per- 
sons are often repelled away from gross positive minds, and shun them 
as we would shun a viper, and our professors of science call such deli- 
cate natures weak-minded persons, when the fact is just the reverse- 



142 PEARLS OF WISDOM, 

Such minds as those always have far more intellectual brain power 
than the former. 

The wonderful complex nervous system of man is a complete he- 
lix ; a coil of wire which communicates electricity to the brain, which 
is the magnet, or central power of the organization, and the compen- 
sating process as with the electro-battery goes on in the shape of cen- 
trifugal currents of real nerve life, (a finer electricity), which the brain 
discharges through the pneumogastric sympathetic nerves to all parts 
of the temple. So, in accord with the magnetic law, we come now to 
observe that the brain and body of the operator becomes one over- 
mastering, positive power, to which, without resistance, the diseased 
patient surrenders to the positive healthy magnetism of the operator. 
Thus the complete blending of the magnetic spheres of the twain, the 
disease in the patient naturally surrenders itself to the healthy body 
of the operator. Thus, you see, it is only a question of time, either 
long or short, which must, of necessity, equalize the magnetic soul 
principle, and both become healthy alike. This magnetic law lies at 
the foundation of all the so-called Spiritual Phenomena, wherein, to 
the observer, it seems that the spirit or mind of the medium has va- 
cated its temple in order to give a foreign intelligence an opportunity 
of manifesting itself. 



MAGNETISM AS A MEDICINE. 

Having briefly sketched the action and effects of the magnetic 
principles, it will now be more expedient to conclude our remarks in 
behalf of the sick and suffering. The human body, in its normal 
and healthy condition, is endowed with every requisite power. 
But by ignorant and negligent treatment the natural vital forces lose 
their just equilibrium, and the effects and consequences are soon visi- 
ble in material prostration, in severe pain, or in silent and insensible 
decomposition. What physicians term " nervous influence" is really 
nothing but the magnetic and electric life of the interior soul. Ani- 
mals, including man, have these magnetic endowments ; and the prin- 
ciple of vital action, in both the human and animal kingdom are ex- 
actly and universally identical. A loss of vital action is nothing but a 
loss of balance between inherent forces, which are positive and negative, 
or magnetic or electric ; and yet we do not hold that the currents gen- 
erated by the metalic, or mineral battery can ever be made to act as a 
substitute, because the principles of Soul-Life are as much finer than 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 143 

atmospheric electricity as the latter is finer and more delicate than the 
gross and turbulent waters of our lakes. 

The Therepeutic influence of magnetism may be exerted in various 
ways, differing, in every case, with temperaments and the nature of 
the disease ; but we cannot stop now to specify any methods. We 
will say, however, that it must be borne in mind that to practice Mag- 
netic Healing successfully, you must have an active witt to do good ; a 
firm faith in your power, and an active confidence in employing it. 
Magnetism is a useful, a spiritualizing, and a sublime agent of vital 
energy and health. In fact, it is the all-pervading sympathy which 
connects us with the absolute condition and suffering of our fellow- 
men. However, we prescribe different remedies merely as palliatives 
and aids as final redemption from disease, and from the fear of death, 
but the radical remedy is still within your own individual organiza- 
tion. We have now given you the general principles of the magnetic 
medicine treasured up in the organs and brain-centers of your own 
individuality, An inflammation is a positive condition of an organ or 
part ; therefore, apply your positive hand and will to it. Why ? Be- 
cause two positives repel, and your hand being a healthy positive, will 
surely scatter the inflammation, which is an unhealthy positive, and 
thus establish the natural equilibrium. Your brain, for instance, is 
loaded with blood ; not so, your mental magnet is surcharged and over- 
stocked with vital currents which should be engaged in other parts of 
your economy — and thus the dependent blood is floated off. So our 
doctors will bleed an apoplectic patient, This method is absurd. No 
man's system ever generates more blood than it needs for its own pri- 
vate use. But it is possible, nay, easy for the magnetic potencies to 
be thrown out of balance, giving rise to co-ordinate symptoms of ex- 
cess in one place, and of deficiency in another ; the remedy, in all 
cases, being the same, viz : A restoration of the magnetic equilibrium 
between foot and brain, between stomach and liver, between heart 
and lungs, between spleen and kidneys, and the inevitable conse- 
quences will be perfect health. 



144 PEAELS OP WISDOM, 



4 

»r. H. S. Tanner^ Fast 



Just as we are finjshing our last manuscript for our book, Dr. H. 
S. Tanner has at last completed his forty days without food, and thir- 
teen of which were passed without drink. 

Having been criticized for honest assertion of a former fast of 
forty-two days, by Dr. Hammond, of New York, and others of like 
belief and persuasion, the Doctor took up a temporary residence in 
New York City, under the charge of the United States Medical Col- 
lege, for the purpose of convincing the most skeptical of the entire 
possibility of a man existing forty days without food. 

Notwithstanding the Doctor had to brave all former theorizers 
and the bulwark of " old hunker medicine," he most assiduously pur- 
sued his attempt, under the most trying ordeal and adverse circum- 
stances, to a successful termination, and on Saturday, August 7, 1880, 
he completed such an abstinence as never before has been authorita- 
tively recorded — notwithstanding Dr. Hammond and Dr. Clendenin, 
Health Officer Dr. Miles, and many others of the most brilliant shin- 
ing stars of the Allopathic School said that it could not be done, 
and pronounced Dr. Tanner a humbug and a fraud. 

But long before Dr. Tanner had completed his forty days' fast in 
New York, the public generally was satisfied that he was honestly at- 
tempting to carry out what he had undertaken. And those of the 
profession who at first claimed that a fast of forty days was impossible, 
gradually began to change front, and to affirm that such facts were not 
new, and that many well authenticated cases were on record, and that 
they had proved of no benefit to science. After which came the pre- 
diction of the knowing ones, that Dr. Tanner would suffer greatly and 
probably die as soon as he began to take nourishment, for such had 
been the result of all cases of starvation, and Dr. Tanner could not be 
an exception to the general rule. 

That fasts of this kind were possible, Dr. Tanner always held, and 
one of his objects in undertaking so trying an ordeal was to prove 
that such things could be done. Many cases of fasting had been re- 
ported, but they were rarely believed, for the reason that no positive 
evidence of such fasting could be furnished, except such as was given 
by the faster. Dr. Tanner, however, accomplished his task under the 
most rigid system of scrutiny, and the eyes of the whole world upon 



GEMS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 145 

him. Thus giving positive proof of the possibility of a protracted 
fasting. Therefore, when we have demonstrated to us that medical 
authorities are in error regarding the length of time life may be pro- 
longed without food, we are brought face to face with some of the 
errors we are guilty of in our daily visits to patients, it matters little 
what the disease may be ; we have been disposed to urge the taking 
of food to sustain life, even if our patient protested against it. This has 
especially been the custom of the profession during the last decade* 
since the supporting and nourishing system of practice came into use. 
But now it has become a question whether food thus taken when the 
system did not demand it, had any effect in sustaining life, and whether 
nature is not the best guide after all as to the necessity for food being 
taken into the stomach. 

And now, that it is demonstrated that a person can go ten, twenty 
or even forty days with out food, then it is plainly our duty to cure the 
disease by cutting short the irritation by forcing food upon the stom- 
ach when it does not require it. If we have an inflamed eye, we give 
it rest, and it is rapidly restored- Therefore, the same treatment 
adopted for diseases of the digestive organs • must necessarily be fol- 
lowed by equally good results ; and Dr. Tanner has taught the world 
that we can abstain from food for comparatively long periods of time 
without bad results. 

Again, the leading authorities have taught us that after long ab- 
stinence from food the digestive organs are so impaired that food must 
be given in very minute quantities. This practice is adopted in all 
cases of starvation, and it is a fact that nearly all such patients die. 
Now Dr. Tanner has shown that long abstinence does not impair 
digestion, but that large quantities of nourishment can be taken with 
impunity. Therefore, a change in this direction promises good re- 
sults, and should be considered one of the lessons of the fast. 

This fast farther demonstrates that even rectal feeding does not 
sustain life, as has been claimed ; but rather that the other forces of 
the body not only keep the patient alive, but also counteract the bad 
effects of \\\\< false method of supposed feeding. 

The most important fact pro von by this fast is the wonderful 
power of mind over matter, as we have tried to explain to you (see 
article on Human Magnetism). This fact has demonstrated to science 
clearly that the human mind is dependent upon some force outside of 
the physical brain. Thus, to our mind, it has only added another link 
to* the chain of evidence which we already have, that the mind or 
spirit, or whatever you wish to call it, does control the body and does 



146 PEARLS OF WISDOM, GEMS OP KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL. 

live after the body is all used up and worn out and laid away to mingle 
with the rubbish of the graveyard. 

In fact, there are so many points which present themselves for 
our consideration in this great lesson of the Dr. Tanner fast and feast, 
that we can do little at present but turn the facts to practical use, and 
mark out a course for future study, since after the fast came the feast, 
when it seems that Dr. Tanner knew the powers of his stomach better 
than the medical savants, and at once began to partake of large quan- 
tities of food from a generous bill of fare, and in four days he gained 
twenty-four pounds in weight ; and now, the 31st day of August, just 
twenty-six days since he completed his fast, he has regained his usual 
weight and strength, and is as well and hearty as ever. 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

A GOOD NURSE , 7 

Kind of nurses 9 

The lazy nurse 10 

The cruel nurse 10 

The careless nurse 10 

The fussy nurse 10 

The dishonest nurse ,. 11 

The tattling nurse 11 

ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCIES 50 

Burns and scalds 50 

Poison vine; poison oak 51 

Spider bites 52 

Snake bites 52 

Cramp in stomach ._.,- 52 

Bilious colic or cramp colic 53 

Jaundice 53 

Neuralgia 54 

Earache 54 

Diphtheria 55 

Ervsipelas 56 

Scarlet fever 58 

Small pox 59 

Worms 60 

Chronic sore eves 61 

Sick headache . : 62 

Chronic rheumatism 63 

Sunstroke 65 

Cholera morbus 66 

Cholera infantum 67 

Measles '. 68 

Catarrh 69 

Gonorrhea 71 

Diabetes 73 

Asthma 74 

Pneumonia .....; 76 

Gravf] 77 

Spermatorrhea 80 

Suppression of monthly periods 83 

Dymenorrhea 83 

Menorrhagia 84 

- ition of the menses 85 

St. Vitus' dance 86 



148 • INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Catalepsy 86 

Epilepsy 87 

Paralysis ; 88 

Dyspepsia ■ 89 

Dropsy 91 

Intermittent fever 92 

BATH 28 

The foot bath 29 

The hip, or sitz bath 30 

CAUSE AND CURE OF FEMALE WEAKNESS 46 

DR. JONES' HOME TURKISH BATH 93 

DR. TANNER'S FAST 144 

EATING 22 

FEVERS 30 

Rules to observe 31 

FOOD AND DRINK FOR THE SICK 13 

GENERAL REMARKS 121 

HEMORRHAGE 33 

Bleeding and how to stop it • 33 

Bleeding from nose 34 

Bleeding above the ear 34 

Bleeding below the eyes 34 

Bleeding from a wound in arm .. 34 

Bleeding from a wound in leg or foot 35 

Bleeding from the stomach 35 

Bleeding from the lungs - 35 

HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF MEDICINE 122 

Present medical schools 124 

Progress of medicine 131 

Need of liberality 132 

Medical science 133 

Conservative leaders 133 

The true physician 134 

What we want 135 

HYGIENE 136 

INFECTIOUS DISEASES 37 

Whooping cough 38 

Croup ; 38 

Children's convulsions or fits 39 

Diarrhea 40 

Dysentery or bloody flux 41 

LUNG LIFE 23 

MEDICINES FOR A HAPPY HOME 42 

MOTHERHOOD 43 

MAXIMS 45 

PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN MAGNETISM 138 

What is the source of magnetism? 140 

Facts illustrative of magnetic polarity 140 

Magnetism as a medicine 142 

POISON AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 115 

Arsenic 116 

Copper 116 

Iron 116 



INDEX. 149 

PAGE, 

Lead ..... 117 

Phosphorus 117 

Opium 117 

Strychnine 117 

Other poisonous plants or seeds 118 

RECIPES FOR COOKING 14 

Beef tea 14 

Extract of beef 14 

Chicken jelly ■ 14 

Barley water 15 

Rice water 15 

Arrowroot jellv 15 

Barley jelly 15 

Oat meal gruel 15 

Corn meal gruel 16 

Oat meal water 16 

Buttermilk pap 16 

Wine whey 16 

Orange whey 16 

Vegetable soup 17 

Elm-bark jelly 17 

Flax-seed lemonade or cough syrup 17 

Milk punch 17 

RECIPES, ETC 95 

Constipation of the bowels 95 

Common bilious condition 96 

Cholera infantum 96 

Catarrh of the bladder 97 

Malarial affections 97 

Rheumatism 97 

How to prevent a felon 98 

Bone felons, carbuncles and boils 98 

Poison oak or ivy 98 

Chapped hands, face or lips 99 

Convulsions in little children 99 

Summer diarrhea in children 99 

Rickety children 99 

Rheumatic gout 100 

Profuse menstruation 100 

Painful Menstruation 100 

Excess of vomiting 101 

Nipple wash 101 

Nursing sore mouth 101 

Tonic for disease of the kidney 102 

Inaction of the kidneys 102 

Diptheria 102 

Erysipelas 103 

Rheumatism 103 

Dressing for burns and ulcers 104 

Earache 104 

For the itch 104 

Lost appetite 104 

Magnetic liniment for rheumatism, sprains or stiff joints 105 



150 INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Magnetic lotion for the human body 105 

Dr. Jones' restorative compound.....' 106 

Catarrh snuff 107 

Powders for cramp in the stomach, or diophoretic powder... 107 

Dysentery — bloody flux 108 

Piles — Hemorrhoids 108 

Cough syrups 109 

Sprains/. 110 

He'aling salve 110 

Cure for bunions or frost-bitten feet Ill 

Scurvy Ill 

Miscellaneous Ill 

Ringworm and tetter 112 

Enlargement of the spleen 112 

For the kidneys in dropsical affections 112 

How to prepare poultices 112 

How to make fomentations 114 

Valuable tooth wash , 115 

Toooth-ache ... - 115 

RULES TO ADMINISTER MEDICINE 119 

To measure medicine, instead of weighing 119 

Liquid measure 120 

Dry measure 120 

Doses of Medicine 120 

SINGULAR PHYSIOLOGICAL FACTS 24 

Process of digestion 25 

The purifying ordeal of the blood 25 

Remedy for constipation 26 

Neuralgia 27 

THE ROOM FOR THE SICK 12 

THE LITTLE INFANT 18 

Teething : 20 

THE HOME MEDICINE CHEST ' 32 

WOUNDS 36 

Broken bones and dislocations 36 



